Plan to build mental hospital next to prison under fire

MENTAL health groups yesterday expressed concern at reports that the Central Mental Hospital is to be relocated to the same site as the replacement complex for Mountjoy Prison.

The Government plans to sell off the existing sites for the forensic psychiatric hospital in Dundrum and the Mountjoy complex and build their replacements on a 100-acre greenfield site on the outskirts of Dublin.

But the plan has been criticised by both Schizophrenia Ireland (SI) and the Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT).