O'Donnell report not sent to board

An official report on triple murderer Brendan O'Donnell, ordered by the Minister for Health, has not yet been received by the…

An official report on triple murderer Brendan O'Donnell, ordered by the Minister for Health, has not yet been received by the health board for the region where the three 1994 killings occurred.

A Mid-Western Health Board spokesman confirmed to The Irish Times yesterday that the board had not yet received a copy of the review, completed last year by the Inspector of Mental Hospitals, which was undertaken on the direction of the then Minister for Health, Mr Michael Noonan.

When it emerged during the O'Donnell trial that he had "fallen out of the system", the Mid-Western Health Board promised a full review. It was also revealed that O'Donnell had not turned up for an appointment at a psychiatric hospital in Ennis and that no follow-up action was taken.

The health board confirmed earlier this year that it had deferred its review because the Minister for Health had ordered his own review. A spokesman for the health board said the board did not want to duplicate the review.

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Dr Dermot Walsh, the Inspector of Mental Hospitals, confirmed in Co Mayo that he had completed his review and report in 1996, and had submitted it to Mr Noonan last year.

During the general election campaign, the Clare Fianna Fail TD, Mr Tony Killeen, said questions remained to be answered by the Minister for Health over why the Dr Walsh report had not been passed to the health board to guide it in any review of its systems.

Meanwhile, the result of the post mortem on O'Donnell will not be known until next week as the State Pathologist, Dr John Harbison, is waiting the results of tests.

O'Donnell, serving life imprisonment for three murders, was found dead in his bed in the Central Mental Hospital on Thursday. The death of 23-year-old O'Donnell was apparently due to natural causes. There was no sign of suicide.