The Labour senator says she has discovered a document that was used to make the decision to close the unit at South Tipperary General Hospital and that it is badly written, has unfinished sentences and contains no economic costings at all.

Senator Prendergast is now calling for the decision to close St Michael's to be postponed until a proper assessment of all options is made.

"The HSE decision to close St Michael's Acute Mental Health Unit in Clonmel is based on a document that amounts to little more than gibberish," Senator Prendergast says. "It was obvious when Mental Health Minster John Moloney gave me a nonsensical defence of the decision in the Seanad last January that a proper assessment had not been carried out" she said.

"Now I have discovered that the decision was based on an Option Appraisal document that was just three-and-a-half pages long and riddled with sentences that are not even completed.

"For instance, in the section that lists the disadvantages of closing the unit, it contains the phrase, "any others?" in brackets. Another sentence tails off with the phrase "expand detail" in brackets. And another says "please add in additional headline difficulties," again in brackets.

"And there is not a single costing in the entire document," she points out.

Senator Prendergast has insisted since the closure decision was made that there was no economic reason for it, and she now says this document proves her argument.

"The HSE and Minister Moloney have no idea whether costs will be cut by closing St Michael's because a proper assessment has not been carried out. The Option Appraisal document is dated January 6 and just three working days later it became a decision.

"So the question I posed in January remains valid. Why has an organisation famed for bureaucracy ignored best practice in change-management in this case? I am more convinced than ever that motives other than the best interests of patients or efficiency lie behind this ever-more apparent farce in decision making.

"If the Minister's claim to be examining all the facts is to have any credibility then he must immediately instruct the HSE to defer its decision pending a proper assessment of the options," Senator Prendergast demands.