Govt plans to sell off 200 acres of mental hospital lands

The health service is set to earn hundreds of millions of euro from the sale of over 200 acres at 15 mental hospitals around the country.

The sites include St Ita's hospital in Portrane in Dublin, which is estimated to be worth €800m.

The sale of these lands are to help implement the government's recently-announced blueprint for mental health services in Ireland.

Those seeking to buy land at some of the larger hospitals will have to include community-based facilities for mentally ill-patients in the new housing developments.

These would include sheltered housing or community care centres for around 1,000 patients being relocated from the older institutions.

St Finian's hospital in Killarney County Kerry and St Senan's in Enniscorthy in County Wexford are among the first to be sold off.

But the minister in charge, Tim O'Malley, is adamant that his priority is to get the best accommodation and services for psychiatric patients.