A planning row is set to reignite over a renewed effort to secure planning permission for the country’s first medically supervised injection facility.
An Bord Pleanála is to reconsider an application by Merchant’s Quay Ireland to operate a controversial drop-in facility at the drug treatment centre’s headquarters on Merchant’s Quay, Dublin.
The case arises out of the blocking of the proposed development last July following a successful High Court challenge taken by the neighbouring St Audoen’s National School on Cook Street. The High Court directed the case should be resubmitted back to An Bord Pleanála for reconsideration of MQI’s application.
The proposed development of the centre provides for an off-street waiting area and a reconfiguration of MQI’s existing services with the supervised injecting facility located in a vacant basement within the building.
MQI won a tender issued in 2018 by the HSE to operate the supervised injecting centre on a pilot basis for 18 months with the possibility of extending the trial period by another 18 months at its main centre at Riverbank Court on Merchant’s Quay.
Source: Sean McCarthaigh, Irish Examiner, 8th February 2022
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