John Moloney (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

There are many questions but I will try to answer them. First, this is not a U-turn. Dr. Kennedy will confirm that I made a visit on my first day in office. I made it clear to him that my instructions were to proceed as quickly as possible to build a new central mental hospital. I told him the only commitment I could give him was that it would not be Dundrum, for many reasons, including the fact that the sale of the property could provide value towards providing further mental health services. It is not by way of coming to a decision quickly, dishonestly, by a U-turn, or whatever the Opposition Members want to say. It was always a matter of the Minister making it clear that we needed a new central mental hospital. Thornton Hall was picked because it would expedite that process.

When leaving after a two-hour meeting I told Dr. Kennedy that he would not wake up some day and read in the newspapers that the central mental hospital was moving to Thornton Hall. It was the only game in town at that time and I was working with the Minister to locate a site. I am working on that. I am not in a position to say where it will be located except to say that I had the opportunity to present the case to Government last Tuesday. It is not a matter of waving flags and saying we did something because we responded to pressure. It is a matter of doing the right thing to provide a central mental hospital as quickly as possible.

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