THE NEW site for the Central Mental Hospital in Dublin will be announced early next year, Minister of State for mental health and disability John Moloney said yesterday.
Last July, Mr Moloney announced the hospital would not be located at the proposed prison site at Thornton Hall in north Co Dublin, as previously planned.
The new location will be announced in January or early February next, but the hospital will not be at Thornton Hall or a rebuilt facility at Dundrum, Mr Moloney told an Oireachtas Health Committee yesterday.
The location for the facility would be one of several announcements to be contained in the review of the Vision for Change, the Government plan for the modernisation of mental health services, to be published in the new year.
"In January/February the publication of the review of Vision for Change will outline the properties coming on the market and the five-year capital programme for delivering Vision for Change."
Mr Moloney told the committee his first priority was the closure of the State's old psychiatric hospitals over the next three to five years and the transfer of patients to community-based settings.
The money from these sales would be ring-fenced for reinvestment in mental health, he said.
The new facility would first be built before the current hospital in Dundrum was sold.
"When the new hospital is completed and the patients relocated, the sale of Dundrum lands can proceed and any surplus funds arising will be reinvested in the mental health capital programme, said Mr Moloney."
