A psychiatric patient found guilty of murder but insane has asked the High Court to compel the Minister for Justice to transfer him from the Central Mental Hospital to an institution in Cork.
Gerard O'Halloran (42) was a patient in Our Lady's Hospital, Cork, when, during the course of an argument in 1988, he struck another patient over the head with a mop, killing him. In November 1989 a jury in the Central Criminal Court found him guilty but insane.
He was sentenced by Mr Justice Lynch to be detained in the Central Mental Hospital at the pleasure of the Minister for Justice.
In the High Court yesterday O'Halloran applied for an order compelling the Minister to transfer him to a psychiatric institution in Cork.
The court heard Mr O'Halloran is the eldest of five children and was aged 11 when his parents died in the 1968 Tuskar Rock air crash.
Mr Diarmaid McGuinness SC said his client went to live with his grandparents, but about the age of 17 first exhibited signs of illness, mainly manic depression, for which he was hospitalised.
After he killed the man in Cork, Dr Art O'Connor, of the Central Mental Hospital, wrote to the Minister in March 1993 suggesting O'Halloran could be held in a less secure hospital such as a local psychiatric hospital. In February 1994, the Department of Justice wrote back, appearing to accept Dr O'Connor's conclusions, subject to certain conditions.
But the Minister had never made an order for transfer. When the Southern Health Board learned of the plan to transfer his client to Cork, it also opposed it, as did O'Halloran's family.
Mr McGuinness said both the inspector and assistant inspector of mental hospitals had become involved, with the inspector writing to the Minister in February 1995 saying he believed O'Halloran had recovered.
The matter was subsequently referred to an advisory committee by the Minister, and it, too, concluded his client did not require continued detention in Dundrum, although he required psychiatric care in the long term.
Mr McGuinness said the health board had effectively refused to accept the transfer, and the Minister had not given effect to any of his decisions by way of formal order.
Mr McGuinness is seeking to have the Minister make an order pursuant to the Mental Treatment Act, 1945, directing the transfer of O'Halloran to St Anne's Psychiatric Hospital, Cork.
The application is being contested by the Minister for Justice and the health board.
The Minister argues that, in the circumstances, he does not have the power. The hearing continues today.