Madam Speaker, with the setting of MUGA project in the vicinity of Sainte Croix, a request was made to my Ministry to relocate the existing methadone dispensing site at Sainte Croix Methadone Day Care Centre, catering for some 230 beneficiaries to ex-police divisional headquarters of Abercrombie, which was already dispensing methadone to some 376 beneficiaries. The relocation was effected at the beginning of 2023. The House may wish to note that in March 2025, methadone was being dispensed to some 635 beneficiaries at Abercrombie, leading to a large crowd, which posed safety and security concerns for the beneficiaries, the general public and the officers involved in the daily dispensing process. A request for the relocation of the site was made by the Divisional Commander from Abercrombie police station. Madam Speaker, in order to alleviate these pressures and to ensure a safer environment for all stakeholders, a strategic decision was taken by my Ministry in April 2025 to relocate approximately 170 beneficiaries from Abercrombie site to Vallée des Prêtres police station. As at 10 February 2026, some 448 beneficiaries are still registered to receive their daily methadone doses at the Abercrombie site. Madam Speaker, I am informed that at the meeting held with the Divisional Commander of Abercrombie police in November 2025, it was highlighted that recipients of methadone had the habit of displaying antisocial behaviours and loiter around the place where the dispensing is made. It was stressed that inter-agency cooperation should be strengthened to find sustainable solutions to such issues. I am further informed that the National Agency for Drug Control, which is now the apex body looking at the drug scourge is addressing this matter. My Ministry has also received a proposal by NADC for the setting up of one-stop shop addiction treatment services and integrated harm reduction clinic at Nicolay Road, Port Louis. The methadone clients currently at Abercrombie site will also be able to benefit from the services at the proposed site at Nicolay Road. The possibility of gradual relocation of the clients at Abercrombie site to the proposed one stop shop addiction treatment services and the integrated harm reduction clinic at Nicolay will also be looked into by NADC and my Ministry once the one-stop shop has been formally set up.

Yes?

Thank you, hon. Minister. Once they are dispensed with methadone, we can see a crowd of these people still remaining in the surroundings. May I know in the short term, what are the solutions that the Minister can propose together with all those framing, including police officers, members from the Ministry of Health who can assist to alleviate the current situation at Abercrombie?

This is a situation which is there throughout the country. Wherever methadone is dispensed, this is the same problem everyone is facing. We keep on getting requests from Members of Parliament that from X particular site, it had to be removed to Y but when are changing the site, you are transferring the problem from one place to the other. Well, it is a human problem, you have to bear with it. The police are doing their level best and once that set up will be in the new place, I do hope we will be able to get rid of those people’s antisocial elements from all the regions to one particular place where the police will be in a much better position to control them. Unfortunately, the problem is same everywhere.

Okay, now we have the Second Member for Grand Baie and Poudre d’Or, Mr Beejan! CONSTITUENCY NO. 6 – BUSINESS LICENSING FEES – AMOUNT COLLECTED