Noel O'Flynn
Question:252 Mr. O'Flynn asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the particular negotiations his Department has entered into for the provision of psychiatric services in the future in Cork Prison. [3917/01]
Vol. 530 No. 3
252 Mr. O'Flynn asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the particular negotiations his Department has entered into for the provision of psychiatric services in the future in Cork Prison. [3917/01]
A psychiatric service is provided for prisons and places of detention by visiting psychiatrists. Offenders who, in the opinion of the psychiatrist and the prison medical officer, are in need of in-patient psychiatric treatment may be transferred by ministerial order to either the Central Mental Hospital, CMH, or a district mental hospital. In practice, all such transfers occur to the CMH.
My officials in the Department and in the prisons service are working with the Eastern Regional Health Authority to improve the organisation and level of psychiatric input in prisons in the Dublin area. It is envisaged that the improvements in psychiatric care being developed through this dialogue will be extended, where feasible, to prisons within other health board areas.