Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Question 982: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the funding that has been allocated from Budget 2008 for the new access road to the new Central Mental Hospital; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31066/08]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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In accordance with the Government decision of 16 May 2006 to approve the development of a new national forensic mental health facility at Thornton Hall, County Dublin, the cost of developing the hospital will be met from the proceeds of the sale of the existing site in Dundrum, County Dublin. The development of the new hospital is the responsibility of the Health Service Executive. The Executive, therefore, is the appropriate body to consider the particular matters raised by the Deputy. My Department has requested the Parliamentary Affairs Division of the Executive to arrange to have the matter investigated and to have a reply issued directly to the Deputy. The cost of acquiring the site for the new prison and hospital was €29,900,000. An additional 8.7 acres, at a cost of €1,305,000, was later acquired by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform to provide a dedicated access road to the prison construction site.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Question 983: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the contacts and meetings which have taken place between the Health Service Executive, the Minister for Health and Children, himself and officials from his Department in relation to the location of the new Central Mental Hospital on the Thornton Prison site; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31068/08]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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I have had no meetings with the Minister for Health and Children or the Health Service Executive about the location of the Central Mental Hospital on the Thornton site. My Department did not have any meetings with the Department of Health and Children or the HSE about the location of the Central Mental Hospital on the Thornton site prior to its acquisition. However, memoranda for Government relating to the acquisition of a greenfield site to replace Mountjoy and the development of a Central Mental Hospital were circulated between the Departments in the normal way. Officials from my Department wrote to the Department of Health and Children in December 2005 in the context of a visit by the Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, CPT, which was planned for 2006. The letter referred to an earlier Government decision that, in principle and subject to further study, the Central Mental Hospital should be transferred to the same site as that chosen for the prison to replace Mountjoy. The letter set out the progress being made on the prison project and confirmed that a portion of the site had been reserved as a possible location for the Central Mental Hospital. It went on to suggest that it would soon be in position to give a concrete indication to the CPT of future plans for a new Central Mental Hospital on the site. There were contacts between the Irish Prison Service and the Department of Health and Children on the area of the Thornton site which would be reserved for the Central Mental Hospital. Since the acquisition, there have been meetings between my Department and the Department of Health and Children about the service being provided for mentally ill prisoners and other matters. In that context, the location of a new Central Mental Hospital on the Thornton site has arisen.