Plans to build a new central mental hospital at Thornton Hall, where a new jail was also being planned, have been abandoned by the Government.
Junior Minister for Health John Maloney told the Dáil that some difficulties with Thornton Hall had emerged.
The Health Service Executive had identified the need for two additional units that had to go with the central mental hospital and the site was not big enough to house them.
Deputy Maloney said he was now seeking an alternative site for the central mental hospital.
Labour's Jan O'Sullivan welcomed what she said was a ‘clever U-turn’. She asked how it was that these new units would not fit on the site - after TDs had been brought out to view Thornton Hall.
The Minister denied this was a U-turn.
He confirmed that the new hospital would not be built in Dundrum, the site of the present hospital.
