Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I support Senator Boyhan's request for a debate on how mentally ill patients are being held in prisons such as Cloverhill Prison and others. It is not the first time this has happened and it would seem that the individual to whom Senator Boyhan referred was there for two weeks. It is very difficult not to become upset when one reads the article by Conor Gallagher in today's edition of The Irish Timesand it is something with which all of us, as parliamentarians, must try to deal.

I want to return to an issue that has been brought up in this House previously and this comes on the head of representations I have received, particularly from adult children of elderly parents, who have pleaded with me when they met me at the weekend, to request that we would ask for churches to be reopened for services. I am a practising Catholic who likes to go to church and I would like to see the church opened up for masses. I would also like that to apply to other churches as well. I must praise our Leader because she has been strong on this issue in this House and in the media and I admire her for doing that. I would like Members to take that up again with the Taoiseach and the Government. Those people were asking me why we would not open the churches from Monday to Friday for morning mass and services. There is never a huge crowd at the morning services but it would accommodate those older people, who do not only see it as something spiritual but they are also meeting their friends and they might walk a few hundred metres into the church if the morning is fine. It is important for the well-being of those people. I know the Leader will take this issue up again and it would be nice to give something like that back to people by opening up the churches from Monday to Friday straight away. I acknowledge that churches are open but we could open them for mass or services. We allow 25 people in for a funeral and a church wedding so why would we not allow 25 in for morning mass during the week?