Delegates Visit Controversial Mental Hospital Site

Irish political representatives visited the controversial site for the proposed new Central Mental Hospital, in Dublin yesterday.

Senators and TDs toured the Thornton Hall site, close to where a new "super prison" is being constructed.

The delegates, all members of the Oireachtas Health Committee, heard a presentation from the Irish Mental Health Coalition and the Mental Health Commission, who outlined their concerns about the relocation.

A report compiled by the Irish Mental Health Coalition, entitled Patients Not Prisoners, has slammed the Thornton Hall development and received the backing of CMH Carer's Group and Schizophrenia Ireland.

Coalition Chairman John Saunders called on the committee to recommend the Government reverse its plan to relocate the Central Mental Hospital from Dundrum.

Mental health campaigners are concerned such a move would stigmatise and criminalise people with mental health problems.

Mr Saunders said: "Placing the Central Mental Hospital in a rural location beside the largest prison in the state is entirely incompatible with the rehabilitative principles of mental health services."

Minister of State for Mental Health, John Moloney, has previously stressed that the hospital redevelopment is a stand-alone project, independent of the new prison.

The Minister said the two facilities would have separate entrances and road access, and be run by the HSE.

Last week, the same political delegation visited the current Central Mental Hospital site in Dundrum.

(PR/JM)