THE GOVERNMENT has been urged to consider the children of Central Mental Hospital patients in its plan to move the facility to the Thornton Hall prison site.
The Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children visited the site in north Co Dublin yesterday and expressed concern at the visiting arrangements.
The committee said it appeared a shuttle bus would take prison and hospital visitors to the visitors' centre before going to the facility of their choice. Fianna Fáil TD Beverley Flynn said she "absolutely would not accept" this arrangement.
Caroline McGrath, director of the Irish Mental Health Coalition, told the committee that the location of the hospital would have an extremely negative effect on patients' children. They would be entering a community "dominated by a penal institution" and children would be oblivious to the fact that the hospital and prison had separate managerial structures.
Ms McGrath said people with mental illness were routinely discriminated against and the relocation would reinforce and extend the experience of stigma.
John Saunders, chairman of the Irish Mental Health Coalition, urged the Government to review the decision, claiming it would "inevitably and irretrievably undermine the rights of patients".
He said economist Jim Power had presented a viable alternative, which involved selling part of the Central Mental Hospital's current site at Dundrum to fund the development of a new facility.
The committee also heard that the Government did not consult the body which advises it on mental health issues before it decided to relocate the hospital.
The Mental Health Commission confirmed that it had not been consulted before the announcement, but its chief executive Bríd Clarke said the commission had made its views known afterwards.
Labour TD Kathleen Lynch asked why the Government bothered to set up such bodies if it did not consult them before making key decisions.
Ms Clarke said a comprehensive assessment of the need for forensic mental health services should be undertaken "as a priority". She said four regional low-security facilities should be set up in tandem with a new high-security facility, and suggested the current Dundrum site was the best location for the high-security facility.
Dr Edmond O'Dea, chairman of the Mental Health Commission, said the relocation was "not consistent with best practice".
Health committee members were critical of the Department of Health and HSE for failing to attend yesterday's meeting, despite having been invited.
Fine Gael TD James Reilly sought to introduce a motion calling for a review of the decision to relocate the hospital, but chairman Seán Ó Fearghaíl ruled that the committee would call both bodies before it in September before deciding on further action.
