Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

The list a previous speaker read out of organisations and voices opposed to the proposition of siting the Central Mental Hospital on the same site as the new so-called super prison to be located at Thornton Hall is not exhaustive. Without question, one could add to that list the Mental Health Commission, the clinical director of the Central Mental Hospital, the families and carers of the patients in the hospital and the Human Rights Commission, to name but a small number of additional voices which have roundly rejected the proposition. What is it that outweighs the concerns voiced by these eminent organisations and has the Department locked into proceeding with this proposal to co-locate the Central Mental Hospital's new facility adjacent to a super-prison? What information is guiding this obstinacy on the part of the Department of Health and Children with regard to what is, in the view of the greater number of Members of this House, including those on the Government benches, and all of the people concerned, an ill thought out and deeply wounding proposal?

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