Michael Finneran (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Cathaoirleach and Senator Ivor Callely for their kind words on my elevation to the position of Minister of State. I take this Adjournment matter on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Mary Harney.

I thank the Senator for raising this matter as it provides me with an opportunity to outline to the Seanad the plans for the re-development of the Central Mental Hospital. In May 2006, the Government approved the development of a new national forensic mental health facility at Thornton Hall, County Dublin. This decision was consistent with a recommendation outlined in A Vision for Change, the report of the expert group on mental health policy which recommended that the Central Mental Hospital should be replaced or remodelled to allow it to provide care and treatment in a modern, up-to-date, humane setting and the capacity of the Central Mental Hospital should be maximised. The cost of developing the new hospital will be met from the proceeds of the sale of the existing site of the Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum. The Health Service Executive has established a project team to progress the redevelopment of the Central Mental Hospital. A project brief is being developed and a cost benefit analysis of the project is close to completion. The new hospital will be a separate capital project, independent of the prison complex. It will be managed and directed by the Health Service Executive with a new governance structure that remains distinct from the prison. The new hospital will be built on its own campus and will retain its identity as a separate, therapeutic health facility. It will have a separate entrance and a different address to the prison complex.

The decision to redevelop the Central Mental Hospital is a major step forward in the provision of quality care to prisoners with mental illness. There has been little or no structural change to the existing hospital since it opened in 1850. With the exception of a small, single-storey block built some 20 years ago it remains essentially unchanged since it was built. Many of the elements of the building are unsuitable to the provision of a modern, therapeutic, forensic mental health service. Like other unsuitable older psychiatric hospitals, the closure of the existing facility in Dundrum is the correct decision. The Central Mental Hospital is the only centre in the State that provides treatment for mental illness in conditions of medium and maximum security. The majority of admissions to the Central Mental Hospital are from within the Prison Service.

Conditions within the Central Mental Hospital have improved in recent years with increased staffing and an end to the practice of slopping out. Important safeguards for patients have been introduced by the Criminal Law (Insanity) Act 2006 and the Mental Health Act 2001. However, the fact remains that the existing hospital facility must be replaced. The report of the Inspector of Mental Health Services stated that the building at the current site is unsuitable for providing an inpatient service. Members of the Council of Europe Committee on the Prevention of Torture who visited the Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum in 2007 were also critical of facilities.

Building a new hospital on a new site will open up a range of opportunities for the provision of modern treatment and recreational facilities. A purpose-built, modern facility, coupled with the required staffing, will offer the best treatment to people requiring forensic mental health services. I will bring the views of the Senator to the attention of the Minister for Health and Children when I meet her next.