Seanad debates
Wednesday, 19 February 2003
Criminal Law (Insanity) Bill 2002: Second Stage.
I totally support the hopes of the Central Mental Hospital to have the place completely refurbished. I am delighted that the Minister for Health and Children and his Minister of State, Deputy Tim O'Malley, are in the hospital this very day. When the Minister of State was in this House, he promised me that he would visit the Central Mental Hospital because the hospital had told me I was the only politician who had been there in decades. I had asked the Minister of State to go and look at the hospital because it was truly appalling. He was as good as his word and brought the Minister for Health and Children with him. I hope the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform will also go and see it. Seriously ill persons are sleeping on concrete plinths and slopping out in a part of the prison built in 1852. There is a preservation order on the building but not because of its great beauty.
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