Mental hospital on prison site ‘worst possible idea’

THE row over the move of the Central Mental Hospital to a new prison site has taken a major twist with the emergence of the highly critical views of the hospital’s medical boss.

Up until now, the views of Dr Harry Kennedy, clinical director at the hospital, were unknown. He has consistently declined to comment on the move, which, following a Cabinet vote last December, is now a formal Government decision.

Letters from Dr Kennedy to the Minister for Health and the department, released under the Freedom of Information Act, show just how concerned he is.

Those views are lent even more weight by a personal letter to the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern on May 11, 2006, in which Dr Kennedy describes as “very acceptable” a previous plan to relocate the CMH to a site adjacent to James Connolly Memorial Hospital, in Abbotstown.

He writes that he and his colleagues learned through the media of the subsequent proposal to relocate the CMH to Thornton Hall — a 150-acre site in North Co Dublin that would be shared with the relocated Mountjoy complex, including St Patrick’s Institution for Young Offenders, Mountjoy Prison, Dochas Women’s Prison and the training unit. That proposal, he writes, is “about as bad an idea as it is possible to imagine”.

His strong stance came despite the political risks involved, as the CMH is dependent on the Department of Health and the Government to fund its long-needed redevelopment.

The Office of Public Works (OPW) has previously valued the CMH’s current 33-acre site in Dundrum, south Dublin at €76 million, but Dr Kennedy believes it is now worth around €200m.

In a letter to Health Minister and then PD leader, Mary Harney, in October 2004, Dr Kennedy said the CMH’s advisory committee favoured selling Dundrum site and using the money to build a new hospital on a different site.

“This followed discussions at the Board of Works, where we were told that the likely location would be adjacent to James Connolly Memorial Hospital, on the Abbotstown site,” he said.

“We were assured that there was no immediate plan to place a prison there. Even if a prison was to be placed there, the site is big enough for the two to be sufficiently remote as not to be seen to be linked. We felt this was a viable option.”

He said around a third of his patients were detained under the Mental Treatment Act, and were not convicted of any criminal offence.

In his next letter to Ms Harney, dated January 27, 2005, Dr Kennedy voiced his dismay at hearing an RTÉ report saying the Government was moving the CMH to the proposed new Mountjoy site, which was confirmed to him by a department official.

If nothing could be done to stop the move, Dr Kennedy called for a separate governance system to ensure the CMH’s independence. The next paragraph in the letter has been censored by the department.

In her reply, Ms Harney reassured Dr Kennedy the new CMH would be under the aegis of the her department and managed by the Health Service Executive.

She said it was intended to develop the CMH independently and that the hospital would have its own grounds, on 20 acres.

A letter from Dr Kennedy to Bairbre Nic Aongusa, principal officer in the department’s mental health services, was refused to the Irish Examiner. Sections of the Act were quoted in the refusal, but no specific reasons given for it.

It has been speculated that the main movers behind the plan are outgoing Justice Minister Michael McDowell and his PD colleague Tim O’Malley — both now ex-TDs.

The Dundrum site is owned by the OPW, whose outgoing minister, PD president Tom Parlon, also lost his seat in the election.

Construction of the Thornton prison complex, which will house around 1,400 inmates, is due to start later this year and is expected to be completed by 2010. The process by which the site was selected, and its cost, at €30m, has attracted controversy.