Human rights group calls for end to slopping out

IRELAND must “immediately” end slopping out in prisons and make an “unconditional commitment” to move people with intellectual disabilities out of psychiatric institutions, the country’s official human rights body has said.

In a hard-hitting “report card” to the United Nations, the Irish Human Rights Commission (IHRC) said unequal access to healthcare in Ireland raised “questions of discrimination”.

The state body said its work had been “seriously undermined” by “disproportionate and drastic” cuts in funding, which had also decimated sister bodies, such as the Equality Authority.