Mental Health Services
Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-25
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Mary Butler (FF), Waterford

I begin by acknowledging the concerns raised in the recent "RTÉ Investigates" programme on forensic mental health services. While I am not a clinician, my responsibility is to maintain public confidence in this essential service for a highly vulnerable group of patients and for the dedicated staff who care for them. I have asked the HSE for full reports on the cases highlighted in the programme, particularly those involving the Central Mental Hospital. I have also asked that all appropriate care options for the individuals featured be examined. I recognise the pain expressed by the families who took part. Their lived experience matters and it motivates me to continue improving the system.
It is important to restate that the Central Mental Hospital is a hospital, not a prison. Its purpose is to provide treatment, support rehabilitation and enable a safe, carefully managed return to the community where appropriate. Demand for forensic mental health services has grown significantly in recent years, including increased need for inpatient beds at the Central Mental Hospital in Portrane. The HSE actively manages the admission waiting list and works closely with the Irish Prison Service to prioritise those with the most urgent clinical needs.
The first piece of legislation I moved at the end of 2020 was the legislation to support those living in the Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum to be transferred to Portrane. In 2022, I opened the new Central Mental Hospital at Portrane, transferring 93 patients from the old Dundrum facility. This state-of-the-art campus, one of the best, if not the best, of its kind in Europe, was delivered with €212 million in Government capital investment. The 170-bed complex includes a 130-bed Central Mental Hospital, a 30-bed intensive care rehabilitation unit, ICRU, and a ten-bed forensic child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, unit. It was always intended that the full capacity at Portrane would become operational on a phased basis because these are very dedicated specific staff.
There are currently 114 operational beds at the Central Mental Hospital, a 20% increase on the former Dundrum hospital. In budget 2025, I secured €2.1 million to recruit the staff necessary to open the remaining 18 Central Mental Hospital beds - 112 were operational at the time. The National Forensic Mental Health Service was permitted to recruit directly and filled most of these specialist posts in record time. There were 45 posts - 41 for the hospital and four for in-reach into prisons. These beds will open gradually over the coming weeks and months. Two beds opened in December and other beds will open in the next few weeks. When all 130 beds are operational, overall Central Mental Hospital capacity will have increased by 37% since late 2022.
In budget 2026, I allocated a further €2.8 million to fund 30 additional staff to open the first ten beds in the new ICRU. Bringing these beds into use will support smoother patient movement through the Portrane campus’s different levels of care, helping create space for further admissions. This year’s funding will bring the National Forensic Mental Health Service workforce to approximately 580 staff. When the ICRU beds open later this year, the campus will operate 140 beds, an increase of 45 beds and almost 47% more capacity compared with Dundrum. The investment will significantly reduce the current waiting list of 38 people in prison who need hospital care.
We also have two psychiatric intensive care units at Carraig Mór in Cork and the Phoenix Centre in Dublin. While these provide short-term intensive care, ICRUs offer both intensive treatment and longer term rehabilitation.

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Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-02-25/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:41+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-25