Over two nights this week, RTÉ Investigates laid bare an ongoing psychiatric care scandal. In 2022, when I took up the position of Chief Inspector of Prisons, I was shocked to find numerous people with open, active — and untreated — psychosis being held in Irish prisons. I commissioned two international psychiatric experts to assist my team to carry out a thematic inspection of psychiatric care in the Irish Prison System. Many prisoners whom clinicians had deemed to require transfer never actually made it to a psychiatric hospital. Clinical pathways for prisoner-patients to receive appropriate psychiatric care have constricted rather than expanded.

Source: Irish Examiner February 12, 2026 01:00 UTC