Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."

I am here to introduce the Central Mental Hospital (Relocation) Bill 2020. The Central Mental Hospital currently operates from a facility in Dundrum which was built in 1850. That building is no longer fit for purpose. Construction of a new hospital is a long-standing Government policy and a priority in the programme for Government. A significant and historic development will occur in 2021, with the opening of the new National Forensic Mental Health campus in Portrane, County Dublin. This facility is made up of three psychiatric centres, including a new state-of-the-art hospital to replace the Dundrum hospital. Legislation is needed to move to the new Central Mental Hospital site.

For 170 years, the Central Mental Hospital has provided secure care, specialist treatment, and rehabilitation for people at high, medium and pre-discharge levels of security. At present, it is providing inpatient treatment to 94 people. Most of those people are detained under various provisions of the Criminal Law (Insanity) Act 2006, with smaller numbers under the Mental Health Act 2001, as well as a small number of people who are wards of court.

The current hospital was built on a parkland site, as the Victorians believed that people with mental ill health could benefit from space and nature. That belief was a progressive one, and, indeed, more enlightened than the name of the facility, which was a product of its time. Today, the language of that time is inappropriate, outdated and offensive. Unfortunately, as some of it is written in law, I will need to quote from it at times during this debate.

In that context, I note that the current legal definition of the Central Mental Hospital comes from the Central Criminal Lunatic Asylum (Ireland) Act 1845. This Act provided for what was defined as a "criminal lunatic asylum" to be built. It was constructed in Dundrum and later, under the Mental Treatment Act 1961, was renamed the Central Mental Hospital. The provisions from those two Acts are what combine to link the hospital to its current location in Dundrum. This Bill is needed to allow the hospital to operate from a new location.

The Bill is short and technical. Its purpose is to provide a lawful basis for the relocation of the Central Mental Hospital from Dundrum, County Dublin, to a new facility at Portrane, County Dublin. It also provides for the transfer of persons detained in Dundrum to Portrane and provides for an ongoing lawful basis for their detention. It provides for the closure of the Dundrum facility, and repeal of section 39 of the Mental Treatment Act 1961, which links the Central Mental Hospital to the location in Dundrum.

I will now take the House through the Bill to clarify its provisions. Section 1 deals with definitions. It defines the meanings of some of the terms used for the purposes of the Bill, including '"relocation day", "closure day" and "former Central Mental Hospital".

Section 2 sets out procedures for fixing a date by ministerial order for the relocation of the hospital. The date shall be agreed after consultation with the Minister for Justice and the Mental Health Commission. From the relocation day, the new hospital in Portrane shall be known as the Central Mental Hospital. A copy of a map marking the location of the new hospital will be included in the ministerial order, with the original map deposited in the Department of Health. From the relocation day, references to the Central Mental Hospital or Central Mental Hospital Dundrum in any enactment, court order or other document made before the relocation day will be read as meaning the new hospital.

Section 3 provides that persons lawfully detained in Dundrum before the relocation day will continue to be lawfully detained in Dundrum on and after the relocation day, pending their transfer to Portrane. During the transitional period between the relocation day and the closure of the Dundrum facility, persons lawfully detained in Dundrum will be transferred to Portrane and will continue to be lawfully detained during that transfer.

The specific provisions under which persons may be lawfully detained in the Central Mental Hospital are included in this section. These are: section 202 of the Defence Act 1954, where a person is unfit to stand trial by court martial; section 203 of the Defence Act 1954, where a person has been found guilty of an offence at a trial by court martial but was, as defined by the legislation, insane at the time of the offence; section 14 of the Mental Health Act 2001, which allows for the involuntary admission of a patient suffering from a mental disorder for their reception, detention and treatment; section 15 of the Mental Health Act 2001, which allows for the period of involuntary admission of a patient to be extended; section 21 of the Mental Health Act 2001, which allows for a patient detained in another approved, psychiatric centre to be transferred to the Central Mental Hospital either for their benefit or for the purpose of obtaining special treatment; section 4 of the Criminal Law (Insanity) Act 2006, which allows the detention of a person who is accused of an offence, is suffering from a mental disorder, is in need of inpatient care or treatment for that disorder, and is not fit to stand trial; section 5 of the Criminal Law (Insanity) Act 2006, which allows the detention of a person who has been held to be not guilty of an offence by reason of insanity, is suffering from a mental disorder and needs inpatient care or treatment for that disorder; and section 15 of the Criminal Law (Insanity) Act 2006, which allows that a person, who is detained in a prison and suffering from a mental disorder for which he or she cannot be afforded appropriate care or treatment within the prison, can be transferred to the Central Mental Hospital to receive care or treatment for the mental disorder.

Section 4 sets out procedures for fixing a date by ministerial order for the closure of the Dundrum facility as a psychiatric centre. This date will be no later than the relocation day made under section 2. The date shall be agreed after consultation with the Minister for Justice and the Mental Health Commission.

Section 5 confirms that several existing entitlements for people detained under the Mental Health Act 2001 and the Criminal Law (Insanity) Act 2006 are unaffected by the changes in the Bill. These are entitlements for a person to have his or her detention reviewed, to appeal against it, to have his or her detention revoked, where appropriate, or to be transferred from the Central Mental Hospital.

Section 6 allows approved expenses associated with the administration of the Bill to be paid for from public funds.

Section 7 repeals section 39 of the Mental Treatment Act 1961. That section renamed the building commissioned in Dundrum under the 1845 Act as the Central Mental Hospital. It must be repealed to allow the hospital to operate from its new location.

Section 8 is the Bill’s final section, and makes standard provisions setting out the Short Title of the Bill and arrangements for its commencement.

For a long time now, the Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum has been unfit for purpose. While efforts have been made to refurbish and maintain the buildings, the permanent solution can only be a move to the new, purpose-built facility. There are acknowledged capacity pressures on the hospital, of which Members of the House will be aware. The opening of the new national forensic mental health service campus will help to address these pressures. Bed capacity in the existing hospital is 93. The new hospital will have 130 inpatient places. It will be supported by the phased opening of both an intensive care rehabilitation unit, with 30 places and a ten-bed child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, unit. The new facility will provide additional bed capacity for women, which will allow for the development of a care pathway for women.

Relocation to the new facility will allow for a world-class service and will ensure that modern, intensive services for those with the most complex mental health needs will be delivered to international standards of quality and excellence and to greater numbers of individuals. I recently visited the sites of the current and future central mental hospitals and I am hugely impressed and optimistic for the future of forensic mental health services in this country. Finally, I commend this Bill to the House and ask for the support of Members in passing it in a timely way.

See this speech in context