Remaining mental hospitals to be closed

A RADICAL overhaul of mental health services that will see the closure of the country’s remaining mental hospitals and the money from their sale spent on developing community-based mental health care will begin this year.

Tánaiste and Health Minister Mary Harney said yesterday: “The commitment is there to do it. It will happen. There is no other way.”

Ms Harney was commenting on the publication of a major Government report estimating that €947 million will be required over the next seven years to develop mental health services, the bulk of which will be realised from the sale of the country’s 15 remaining mental hospitals.