Irish-born mental patients in institutions in the UK should have the right to be repatriated to Ireland, a conference on emigrants' rights has been told.
A transfer home would often be in the best interests of the patient's mental health, said Kevin Bourke, chairman of the Mayo branch of the Irish Emigrant Liaison Committee.
"So many of these people are lost, they have no family and no one to turn to," he told the committee's conference in Castlebar yesterday.
The conference also heard of the plight of 50,000 "undocumented" Irish in the US who, because they are in the country illegally, are unable to return to Ireland even for a holiday (see panel).
Eithne Rynne, director of the Federation of Irish Societies in Britain, said the health needs of Irish emigrants had traditionally been ignored. "There is still a failure on the part of many statutory organisations to monitor the Irish, and this results in discrimination still taking place," she said.
This happened despite the 2001 Race Relations Act which categorised the Irish as an ethnic minority in Britain.
"Local studies and data from Irish organisations provide evidence that Irish people have problems with physical and mental health, compounded by poor housing, low income and unequal access to health services," Ms Rynne added.
Irish people in Britain had some of the highest rates of mental illness of any ethnic group, including suicide at all ages. They also experienced the highest rates of cancer deaths and one of the highest death rates for heart disease and strokes.
While suicide was a problem generally among the Irish population, there was particular concern about the rates among young women, prisoners and Travellers.
Ms Rynne said many Irish emigrants were not accessing correct benefits and services, often because they feared discrimination and a lack of understanding.
Peter Feeney, head of public affairs policy at RTÉ, said the station hoped to make its television service available in the UK shortly but could not say when. A previous attempt to broadcast Irish programmes in Britain through Tara Television ended in receivership in 2001 and losses of €9 million.
He said there was not enough interest in Tara to make it viable. However, new satellite services and technologies offered an improved prospect of a viable service.
Before this could happen RTÉ would have to address copyright issues. The station held the rights to show foreign-bought programmes, and some home sports programmes, in Ireland only. Buying UK rights was not possible, either because they were unavailable or too expensive.
