Ireland is like a 'banana republic' for mental health services, a leading psychiatrist claimed today.
In an astonishing attack on the Government, Professor Patricia Casey said the lack of long-term facilities for psychiatric patients was 'a disgrace' given the country's wealth.
Prof Casey, who compiles expert reports for the Government, is a professor of psychiatry at University College Dublin and a consultant psychiatrist at the Mater Hospital.
She said: "Ireland is a banana republic for psychiatric services.
"There are no proper services for people with eating disorders. There are no proper services for people with personality disorders.
"For people who cannot be treated at home in the long-term, we don't have enough psychiatric beds.
"For some people who need high-support care indefinitely, we don't have adequate high-support hostels for them. I have to keep people for two to three years in an acute ward because they have nowhere else to go.
"It is a disgrace in the richest country in the world."
Prof Casey also said that private patients were just as badly served as public patients.
She added: "I think it is bad across the board, I have to say. If you're rich, there is still nowhere for you to go if you need long-term [psychiatric] care."
Prof Casey, who is also a member of conservative think-tank, the Iona Institute, told RTE Radio that her mother always taught her to speak her mind if she had something to say.