Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Labour Party welcomes this Bill and will be supporting it. In 1903, St. Ita's Hospital, Portrane, was built. It was the most expensive building constructed by the British Government in Ireland. In 2014, it was announced by the then Government and the former Minister of State at the Department of Health, Kathleen Lynch, that the National Forensic Mental Hospital would be built on the same campus and that it would be the most expensive hospital ever built up to that point. I am sure not sure if the children's hospital has superseded that. In 2014, a public meeting was held in Donabate, which is located near Portrane and on the same peninsula, to discuss this building. It was fascinating to be there that night. There were a number of questions from the floor about the building and the impact it would have on traffic on the Donabate peninsula . I recall that one individual mentioned the relocation of the Central Mental Hospital as being a negative. It was unbelievable to see the room rise up to a man and a woman and announce that the community welcomed it and that it had a long tradition of caring for people with mental health issues through the St. Ita's Hospital.

The meeting that night was not about NIMBYism or people not wanting the hospital in their area. It was about welcoming the investment and the hospital and the opportunity to care for people again on the peninsula. From the 1980s onwards, St. Ita's went into a state of decline as we moved to deinstitutionalisation and, thankfully, people began to develop a more enlightened approach to those with mental health issues. Therapies improved and the whole medical fraternity improved its care for people with such issues.

For an asylum-era facility such as St. Ita's, to use the language of the time to which the Minister of State referred, that meant mental health was taken away from it. The community wanted to continue to help, to be at the forefront and to continue that tradition and move with the times and the care. It is most welcome that that investment will come back to Portrane and to the peninsula, and that those people will again be at the vanguard of an improved and ever more caring approach to mental health. For the people of north County Dublin and the peninsula, and Portrane in particular, this is a proud time where the centre of their community is coming back to them. They are ready, as a community, to care as they have done to the best of their ability over the years. This Bill before us, which will hopefully be passed in short order, is another positive step in that direction.

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