asked the Minister for Justice to explain the circumstances in which a decision was taken to transfer a prisoner from a high security prison to the Curragh prison hospital and from there to Dundrum Central Mental Hospital.
Written Answers. - Prisoner Transfer.
173.
At about midnight on 4 February, the prisoner, who was in Portlaoise Prison, was found to have cut his wrists. He was taken to the county hospital for emergency treatment. On the following day he was transferred to the Curragh Military Hospital for further medical treatment. He was examined there on 6 February 1979 by a psychiatrist from the forensic psychiatric service of the Eastern Health Board, who recommended that the prisoner have in-patient psychiatric treatment. He was transferred to the Central Mental Hospital, Dundrum, on 6 February 1979 for this treatment. The Central Mental Hospital was established to provide in-patient psychiatric treatment in a secure setting for prisoners requiring such treatment. It also caters for certain patients transferred from other psychiatric hospitals who have been charged with indictable offences.