Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 18 Jun 1975

Vol. 282 No. 5

Adjournment Debate. - Death of Prisoner.

Dr. Loughnane

My reason for raising this matter on the adjournment is to try to ascertain the facts regarding the sad death of this man, a father of seven young children, with another baby expected in the near future. I want to raise a few points which I hope will prevent a recurrance of a similar death in future.

In reply to my question today asking the Minister for Justice if he has called for an inquiry into the death of the prisoner in Mountjoy Prison and if not he will do so, he stated that on 16th May last an inquest, which is a public sworn inquiry, was held on the death of the prisoner. In addition, full departmental inquiries were made into the circumstances of the death as is normal in such cases. The Minister knows as I do that an inquest is not an inquiry into all aspects. An inquest is an inquiry to ascertain the cause of death and that only. I have not seen the findings of the departmental inquiry, nor has that man's poor wife. I have a letter of 14 pages, which I do not propose to read. It is a sad letter from the widow in County Clare, a young woman who knew that her husband was ill from the evidence presented later, that he was not of very sound mind. She never complained that he ever did any harm to her and she never thought of having him examined with a view to have mental treatment for him. The Minister referred to that today when he said that he did not have treatment outside of prison.

The Minister also knows the regulations about having mental treatment under the Mental Acts. There are two main methods, one is voluntary, where a person thinks he needs treatment or his immediate friends will ask him to have treatment and he voluntarily signs a form to have treatment. The other procedure is where the person is certified where a relative complains about the peculiar behaviour of the person. That relative goes to the doctor and signs what is known as the pink form where that person is certified. A person may be certified by a member of the Garda Síochána who will go to the doctor. In cases of reports from people, except the person has done something to interfere with a person the Garda are not entitled to sign the document, nor is the doctor entitled to sign it.

That is the sad situation which exists in the country, where almost similar sad cases to this one of Donlon from County Clare occur, where people have to wait until damage is done. They are not brought to the mental hospital but to the District Court. That is what happened in this particular case. He was brought to the District Court the first time and on being sentenced to prison the district justice recommended psychiatric treatment for him. He was admitted to prison and, from the information I have ascertained, he was not examined by a psychiatrist. On 22nd March his sentence ceased in Limerick and on leaving that prison he was arrested, brought to Ennistymon Garda station and returned to Limerick Prison again. Subsequently, he was brought to Kilkee Court and then to the Circuit Court at Ennis where he was referred to the Central Criminal Court in Dublin. Bail of £4,000 was fixed. The bail was not forthcoming and he was remanded to Mountjoy Prison.

Prior to this, at Ennistymon court when he was charged he made a prophetic statement which was recorded by his friends. He said:

Remember when the court comes on ye will have no Seán Donlon to deal with, only his dead body.

It was obvious that that man had a disturbed mind. His wife got a letter from him from prison stating that he wished her, when he died, to take down his dead body and bury him in the family grave at Killeany. There were some strokes on the letter. According to that man's widow the letter was censored in Mountjoy. It should have been obvious to the authorities that that man had a disturbed mind.

When he left Limerick Prison he was not examined medically and when he arrived in Mountjoy Prison he was not examined, even though the prison regulations state——

Mr. Cooney

Both of those statements are incorrect.

Dr. Loughnane

This is the information I have. I only want to clarify the story.

Mr. Cooney

I should warn the Deputy that he is putting incorrect statements to the House concerning colleagues of his.

Dr. Loughnane

Yes, but the information I have is that even at the inquest there was no record of his having been examined in Limerick prior to his discharge and no record in Mountjoy Prison of examination on arrival. On arrival in Mountjoy Prison he was admitted to the infirmary. Normally, prisoners are not admitted to the infirmary except for some medical reason and there was no other reason except for his prior history. He had not been in Mountjoy Prison before. Was it that he was considered a violent man and was admitted to the infirmary for that reason?

For nine days prior to his death, it was admitted at the inquest, he was not examined or seen by a medical officer in Mountjoy Prison. Some few days before his death——

Mr. Cooney

I hesitate to interrupt but these alleged facts are not borne out by what actually transpired. Perhaps, if the Deputy would give us the source of his information.

Dr. Loughnane

The Minister will have his opportunity. This is the information I have.

Mr. Cooney

Could the Deputy give us the source of his information?

Dr. Loughnane

The source of information is his widow. If the Minister refers to the inquest he will see that the doctor from Mountjoy Prison admitted he had not seen the man for nine days prior to his death. I am not blaming the doctor in Mountjoy Prison, he is a busy man who is on temporary work there. He is a busy man outside and is only allowed a certain time to do all the work he is supposed to do. The work has increased in prisons. I am not blaming anybody, but there was general negligence by the State and by the prison authorities. It needs a reshuffle and re-examination, particularly when inside one month two other prisoners committed suicide in two other prisons. I am not familiar with the circumstances of those two men; I am only familiar with the circumstances regarding my neighbour. My evidence may be wrong but the Minister can refer to the findings at the inquest.

If the statements I got are true it is obvious the man needed examination and treatment. If he had got this examination and treatment there is no reason to believe that that man would not be alive today. The onus of responsibility is on the prison authorities, and, in my opinion, on the State. That woman and her family are entitled to compensation, just as much as any widow with children whose husband is knocked down by a drunken driver who is covered by insurance.

Minister for Justice (Mr. Cooney)

I can sympathise with Deputy Dr. Loughnane's emotional involvement in this sad case. The deceased was a constituent of his and, as he says, a neighbour. Indeed, at one time in the course of his imprisonment Deputy Dr. Loughnane was interested in early release for him. I regret this man's death and everybody connected with the prison services deeply regrets it. I share the feeling of sadness that it should have occurred or that any tragic death should occur. The issue here is a clear and serious charge by a Deputy of this House against the prison service. The charge is that the prison services are so construed and so negligently run that they caused this man's death. That is a charge I reject completely and entirely, and I regret that I have to say that as put tonight it is a reckless charge, put in good faith but that does not save it from being a reckless charge.

I asked Deputy Dr. Loughnane the basis for his information. He indicated that it was the unfortunate widow of the deceased. He purported then to tell us what took place at the inquest, and what took place on the prisoner's admission to hospital, none of which was correct. When this man was before the District Court in Clare the district justice suggested that he should be referred for psychiatric examination when he was lodged in Limerick prison. He was seen on the date of his lodgement in Limerick prison, 15th January, 1975, by the medical officer of that prison who referred him, in accordance with the district justice's view—a layman's view I hasten to add—to the consultant psychiatrist to the prison. He was seen by the consultant psychiatrist to Limerick Prison, a man I am sure well known to Deputy Dr. Loughnane and a man highly regarded in his particular speciality.

I do not know if it is fair to name those men here but I will give the names to Deputy Dr. Loughnane. Dr. Cagney is the prison medical officer and Dr. Fennelly was the psychiatrist who saw the deceased. That is the first and serious mis-statement of fact by Dr. Loughnane, that that man when admitted to Limerick prison, was not seen by a doctor and did not receive the psychiatric attention recommended by the district justice.

Dr. Loughnane

I said that he was not seen by a doctor in Limerick on the day of his discharge, before he went to Dublin.

Mr. Cooney

We will come to that also. Dr. Loughnane can accept from me that he was seen by a psychiatrist. That psychiatrist, in the course of his report —and I think it is proper to say this in fairness to the medical personnel attached to our jails, and in regard to the attack to which they have been subjected, an attack by third-party hearsay that the assessment by that highly thought of psychiatrist was that "this man does not appear psychotic". He was subsequently transferred from Limerick Prison on 10th April, 1975. On the day he left Limerick Prison he was seen again by the prison medical officer. That is the second incorrect fact put forward by Dr. Loughnane.

Dr. Loughnane

That fact was not recorded.

Mr. Cooney

Again, I do not know the source of Dr. Loughnane's misinformation, but there are people interested in this case—I am not saying that Dr. Loughnane is one of them but he may be duped by them—— whose bona fides towards our prison and our prison system must be seriously in doubt. If they have been the source of information to the unfortunate person who gave Dr. Loughnane the information, then I am not surprised that the information is inaccurate and slanderous of the medical authorities in our prisons.

On arrival in Mountjoy on 10th April, 1975, he was seen by the prison medical officer, and again it is incorrect to say that the prison medical officer is unable to carry out his duties. It is a serious reflection by one professional colleague on another to suggest that this man would continue to occupy a position that he was not able to discharge efficiently, to the best of his professional ability and in accordance with the dictates of his profession. That is wrong and I must reject it on behalf of the devoted medical officer in Mountjoy.

Dr. Loughnane

How is it that the assistant chief officer in both prisons have made no records of the medical examination prior to leaving Limerick——

Mr. Cooney

That is incorrect. There are records. Where else did I get my information except from the records?

Deputy Dr. Loughnane made a further serious mis-statement when he said that ten days prior to this man's death he was not seen by the medical officer in Mountjoy. He was seen by him on 21st April and he was seen again by him on 24th April. The unfortunate death took place on 28th April.

Dr. Loughnane

The evidence at the inquest——

An Ceann Comhairle

I must ask the Deputy to allow the Minister to make his statement without interruption. The Deputy was afforded an opportunity of making his case for 20 minutes. The Minister must be allowed to reply without interruption.

Mr. Cooney

It is important that the record be put straight as regards what happened. Dr. Loughnane has been seriously misled and probably a lot of other people have been seriously misled as to the true and tragic facts of this case. As to whether a person is seen by a psychiatrist is decided in the first instance on the assessment of such consultation by the medical officer of the prison or by the general practitioner outside the prison. In this case the medical officer in Limerick called in a consultant psychiatrist whose examination did not reveal psychosis. The medical officer in Mountjoy, an experienced and dedicated medical officer, did not call in a psychiatrist when the prisoner was in Mountjoy. I have to accept, and I am sure that Dr. Loughnane, as a member of the medical profession, will accept that I and any other layman and any other doctor who knows nothing about the case and whose only information about the case is biased third-hand hearsay, would not dare criticise the professional decision of a medical officer in Mountjoy as to how he conducts his professional affairs. That is what is at issue here, and that is what I deprecate.

There was a tragic event and unfortunately the tragedy has been compounded by the raking over of events by people whose bona fides, as I said earlier, must be at least suspect. I want to put the record straight as regards the misstatement of facts alleged here by Deputy Dr. Loughnane. The prisoner was seen medically and psychiatrically in Limerick. He was seen on his arrival in Mountjoy, and he was seen at least three times during the 18 days he was in Mountjoy. We have to depend on the professional expertise of the medical officers attached to our prisons as to whether any particular prisoner is assessed or referred for psychiatric examination. Psychiatric facilities are available in our prisons to the degree they are required and at the level they are required. They are provided by the health boards independent of the prison service altogether. To suggest that through some fault of the psychiatric service attached to our prisons this man took his life is misleading and erroneous and from the mouths of some people —and I exclude Deputy Dr. Loughnane from this—it is malicious. But I would include Deputy Dr. Loughnane in a charge of being reckless, because he has come in here with evidence that was hearsay and inaccurate and has made charges which reflect unfavourably on professional colleagues. I am glad to have the opportunity to reject them and show them as completely untrue.

The Dáil adjourned at 11 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Thursday, 19th June, 1975.