O’Malley says he is sorry over speech faux pas

THE junior health minister with responsibility for mental health has announced plans to shut down a mental health facility which has been closed for the past five years.

Minister Tim O’Malley made the faux pas in his address to the Progressive Democrats’ conference earlier this month. He listed St Kevin’s in Cork as one of 10 “grim, obsolete Victorian prisons” he intends to close down.

However, the Health Service Executive (HSE) confirmed the unit, in the grounds of what was formerly Our Lady’s Hospital in Shanakiel, has in fact been closed since 2002.