Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 17: To ask the Minister for Health and Children if she will reconsider the decision to relocate the Central Mental Hospital to the site of the new prison complex; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22204/08]

John Moloney (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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The Government decision in May 2006 approved the development of a new national forensic mental health facility at Thornton Hall, Co. Dublin. The new hospital facility will provide a therapeutic, forensic psychiatric service to the highest international standards, in a state-of–the-art building. The decision to relocate the Central Mental Hospital (CMH) is consistent with "A Vision for Change" — the report of the Expert Group on Mental Health Policy, which recommends that the CMH should be replaced or remodelled to allow it to provide care and treatment in a modern, up-to-date humane setting and that capacity should be maximised.

The redevelopment of the CMH will constitute a separate capital development project independent of the prison complex to replace Mountjoy Prison, and will be owned and managed by the Health Service Executive (HSE). The new hospital will be built on its own campus and will retain its identity as a distinct therapeutic health facility with a separate entrance and address to the prison complex.

In the circumstances there are no proposals to revisit the Government Decision of May 2006.