Members of the Mid-Western Health Board have called for an investigation into the discharge of a mentally-ill patients after a 28-year-old man stabbed a homeless person to death in Limerick city just nine days after he was released from psychiatric care.
Last Thursday, Anthony McMahon, Ballinacura Weston, Limerick, was convicted of the manslaughter of homeless man Mr Anthony O'Shea on September 29th, 2001.
During the three-day trial at the Central Criminal Court the jury heard that 28-year-old McMahon - who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia - had been discharged from the acute psychiatric unit of the Mid-Western Regional Hospital in Limerick, just nine days before he killed Mr O'Shea.
The court heard that McMahon had been "high and aggressive" in the months before the stabbing and that he suffered from a delusional disorder.
Yesterday, at the monthly meeting of the board in Limerick, Cllr Joe Meagher attempted to raise the matter but was advised to take the issue up personally with the board's chief executive after the meeting.
In a statement issued last night, the board said that defending its record or treatment in this case, or answering the various media queries, would involve "encroachment on medical confidentiality and this course of action is not open to us".