Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 6 December 2022

Joint Committee On Health

People Detained in Secure Forensic Mental Health Facilities: Discussion

Professor Eilion?ir Flynn:

I suppose one of the issues could be the sensitivity of the potential for identifying, because this is a very small group of people. Sometimes people who are in the CMH are there are as a result of high-profile cases, sensitive situations or tragic circumstances. Obviously, there needs to be respect for the data protection rights of people detained in the CMH, but that would not completely explain away why we do not know the breakdown for those 60 to 90 detained at any one time of the legal grounds for their detention or the length of their detention. That would not necessarily risk identifying anybody. It should be possible to provide that. It is not currently being provided. That is correct. I do not know if Ms Ní Chaoimh wanted to add any explanation there.