Most of the patients in the hospital are housed in a building dating from 1850. It has changed little since then apart from a bit of paint every now and then. The whole area is not hopeless because some new residential units, and a residential hostel from which some patients are able to leave and work outside the institution, have been built. About 40% of the patients have been there for over five years and there is little hope for some of them of ever leaving it. I loathe using the word moral, but we have a moral obligation to make the lives of these people some way tolerable for the rest of their time in this institution.

The Minister of State has seen the conditions. He has seen where patients have no in-cell sanitation and sleep on a sort of concrete base. They have to slop-out and defecate and urinate in plastic buckets from 8 p.m. when they are locked in to 8 a.m. when they are let out. As a professional with the knowledge of what happens with psychiatric patients, the Minister of State knows, as I do, that this is not right.

I do not put the blame on him or the Government because this has been going on for decades. The reports of the Inspector of Mental Hospitals over the past 30 years contain repeated indications that the situation in the Central Mental Hospital is one of the worst. It is so appalling that it could not be described as a therapeutic environment.

The situation is bound to get worse because the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform has said he will abolish padded cells for psychiatric patients in the prison service. Where does he propose to send these people? If I were in a padded cell in Mountjoy, Wheatfield or Clover Hill I would ask to stay there rather than be moved to a cell in the Central Mental Hospital. A person would have a better chance of being in a therapeutic regimen in the prison service because the staff in the hospital are fighting an impossible situation.

The Criminal Law (Insanity) Bill, in which it is suggested that those who have committed crimes who are psychiatrically ill will not be sent to prison but sent to a psychiatric hospital, is also before the House. The hospital in question must be the Central Mental Hospital because there is no other forensic psychiatric facility in the country. The Inspector of Mental Hospitals has described the dreadful situation and one cannot but agree with everything he has said.

On "Five Seven Live" recently I spoke to the mother of a young man currently in the Central Mental Hospital. Every time I speak on the issue I get the most distressing calls from relatives of those incarcerated there. The most recent call described the terrible situation of a man whose sister had become institutionalised after many years in the hospital. She had ended up in the Central Mental Hospital at the age of 23 and after several attempts she succeeded in committing suicide. He wanted to know why this sort of thing happened. Sadly this is not the only case of this kind.

A few weeks ago I tried to get funds from the sale of State property by the Office of Public Works put aside towards the building of a new Central Mental Hospital. The figure of €34 million was the last figure I was quoted for this, although it is probably more now because building costs rise daily. However, the Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Deputy Parlon, informed me that the Office of Public Works was not involved in building hospitals.

I then had the inspiration that funding might be provided by the sale of property owned by the Department of Health and Children. For example, a large amount of St. Brendan's Hospital has been sold off. Other psychiatric institutions may also be sold off. Nothing could be more important than getting funds together for a new Central Mental Hospital. For years the Inspector of Mental Hospitals has been urging the making of a decision on replacing old buildings.

I realise there is yet another review going on about what should happen in Dundrum. I will put my fingers in my ears if the Minister of State again informs me of the position in that regard. Sometimes I think we believe that something has been done when we receive a report or carry out a review. These things can be done at the same time as those I have suggested. I want the Minister of State to carry out an audit of the property of the Department of Health and Children to ascertain what could be sold off. The money could then be put it into a special fund to build a proper unit in the Central Mental Hospital.

In December 2000, the East Coast Area Health Board, in conjunction with the Eastern Regional Health Authority and the Departments of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and Health and Children, established a group to advise on proposals for the future of the Central Mental Hospital. The group took into account national and regional services provided by the hospital, linkages and community psychiatric services, the criminal justice system, new mental health legislation, the training role of the Central Mental Hospital for medical, nursing and paramedical staff and future accommodation and resource requirements. It concluded its work last year and its report was submitted to the Eastern Regional Health Authority and to the Department of Health and Children. The report included plans to modernise, refurbish and extent the existing building at the Central Mental Hospital and to provide a new residence on the campus. Overall capacity is projected to increase from 90 to 120. These plans will be subject to the approval of the Department of Health and Children and to the necessary capital funding being available.

To progress the redevelopment of the hospital as quickly as possible, the Minister for Health and Children has established a project team. This consists of representatives from the Department of Health and Children, the Eastern Regional Health Authority, the East Coast Area Board, the Irish Prisons Service and a representative of health board chief executive officers. As part of its work the team is examining all financing options for the overall project.