 On the 7th of February, the cabinet approved the introduction of legislation to establish supervised injection facilities for drug users. The plan is for facilities to be stopped by medical professionals trained to deal with overdoses and to be in place where users can access sterile needles and spaces to inject themselves with drugs they have brought with them. The legislation was suggested by the Analyphi group who mentioned it in their annual report in 2012 and it was taken on board to be put on the government agenda for this year. The Minister of State for Communities and National Drug Strategy Catherine Byrne spoke about why this would be a positive move and she responded to criticisms by groups such as the Temple Bar Company and the Restaurants Association about the possibility of the city centre becoming a magnet for drug users. One of the reasons why I suppose as in other countries now there's over 90 of them around the world is to facilitate people who unfortunately are chronic users and people with calmness and mental health and other issues be able to facilitate them to inject in a safe environment particularly within a health service where there would be doctors and nurses and they're able to assist if they're going to difficulty and it has been proven I suppose in other countries that people haven't died in these places there's nobody there's never been a death recorded in any of them across the world and so it's that's why it's called supervised safe injection facility because it is supervised in a safe and clean environment I think I can understand the concerns around businesses in town in the capital city but unfortunately it's already there the people are already there injected the only thing is they're injected openly and they're leaving all the disregarded needles which can be a health hazard there's a pilot scheme it'll be only one for now and her well it goes we'll see then about the rest of the country but there's businesses calling for it in Cork and other place the legislation is expected to be introduced in the Dahl in the coming weeks with the first centre due to be opened in Dublin city centre in the autumn Iron McElroy DCUTV News