Government minister criticises jailing of mentally ill people

People with mental health issues being sent to Irish prisons is “one of the biggest problems” that needs to be tackled by Government, a junior minister has said.

Helen McEntee told the Irish Examiner that there are a lot of people who are “in prison who really shouldn’t be in prison, they actually have psychiatric problems”.

She attributed part of the problem to the limited capacity of the ageing Central Mental Hospital (CMH), which Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald revealed has a waiting list of 15 people in an average week.

Mental health services are provided in a number of Irish prisons through collaboration between the Irish Prison Service and the HSE.

Plans to build a new and improved Central Mental Hospital are already underway and the facility is expected to open in 2018.

Ms McEntee said: “It costs a lot more to keep somebody in prison, let alone the fact that it’s not actually right that someone is in prison when they actually have a mental health problem.

“Sometimes it’s hard to identify that as well. It might not be identified, or there might not be space, so that’s why it’s so important that our new Central Mental Hospital progresses as quickly as possible so that we have more space.”