Sinn Féin spokesperson on Addiction, Recovery and Wellbeing, Thomas Gould TD, has today called for the government to review the incident in Dublin in the last number of days that saw spiked heroin lead to a dangerous spike in overdose. 

Teachta Gould said:

“Firstly, I want to thank all of those on the ground who identified this issue so quickly. There was really proactive, responsive work done across the board – from community groups handing out Naloxone to the HSE’s use of electronic signs, I’ve no doubt that the actions of those working in Dublin’s addiction sector saved many lives over the last few days.

“I want to also thank businesses and voluntary groups who supported the efforts – harm reduction is at its core about saving lives and that was clear from the last few days.

“There must now be a review into how this response happened – what worked well and what didn’t. We must learn from this event and ensure that every single life that can be saved from overdose is saved. Core to this is the rollout of Naloxone.

“At our Ard Fheis this weekend, we passed an important motion calling for a full rollout of Naloxone – we believe it should be accessible for anyone who may need it – families whose loved ones are in active addiction, business owners whose customers may need it and anyone who attends drug services. There should be no barriers to Naloxone because it saves lives.

“Chronic underfunding of drug and alcohol addiction services have left them struggling to survive – without these services, we cannot even estimate how many people may have died on the street of Dublin in the last few days.

“They identified the trend at an early stage and sprung into action. This should be a wake up call for Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil – fund our addiction services because people’s lives literally depend on them.”