David Norris (Independent)

With regard to amendment No. 1, this situation affects not only Ireland. The position with regard to human rights and ECT has been confronted at the United Nations and the World Health Organization and both bodies have stated with regard to this specific treatment that it should be administrated only with the free and informed consent of the people concerned. I take these bodies seriously; I do not always agree with them but they have to be added into the balance.

The right of a patient who has the capacity to refuse ECT has to be protected unequivocally under section 29 and at present the Act is clearly in breach of this. We have a commitment on this and we should support these important principles. It is very important that we live up to our international obligations. If we look at what we have done, we adopted most of the principles of the United Nations convention on the rights of persons with disabilities five years ago in December 2006. However, we have not ratified it and this concerns me. What we need is something that goes further than this and I ask the Minister of State to take this back to her colleagues in Cabinet. We need a comprehensive review of the entire Mental Health Act and its associated Acts so that we can come up to the standards to which we have agreed in principle, such as the UN convention on the rights of persons with disabilities. We have a further way to travel with regard to this. The administration of drugs on a long-term basis to people on an involuntary basis for a period in excess of three months is a direct analogy to the section we are examining and this also needs to be explored. We need to ventilate these issues.

On a very serious note — because there was a certain banter and I know Senator Harris and I both enjoy this type of thing — there is a stigma about mental illness which is completely inappropriate. Jonathan Swift was one of the first people in Europe to point out that mental illness is just that; it is not possession by devils, madness, badness, lunacy, imbecility or whatever else, it is illness. Nobody apologises for having arthritis; why should anybody apologise for having depression? They should express it, understand it and seek assistance. One would hope that as a community we would be prepared to give that assistance.

With the greatest respect to Senator Corrigan, we should examine and find out on approximately how many occasions when second opinions are called for is the second opinion substantially different to the first and what are the reasons for this. This would be helpful because perhaps it would set people's minds at ease. Perhaps someone could do an academic study on this.

Not surprisingly, Senator O'Toole referred to the need for real capacity legislation. This is a new Government with a new programme for Government. So often when in opposition, Members of the Labour Party and Fine Gael were passionate on behalf of rights-based legislation and capacity legislation. Now we are calling in the cards and asking to see the value of their money and whether they are really committed to this. Will they act consistently on principle? We know they are now in a practical world and that can be terribly difficult and there are constraints but I appeal to them in as far as possible to examine first of all ratifying the convention I specified and, second, examining the publication of even a draft capacity Bill. This would be extremely valuable.

I have just realised that three years ago in 2008 I was the third man to put my name to the Bill. Perhaps I should have said "third person" but I said "third man" because I like the film and its music. I am very proud, pleased and honoured that my colleagues in the Green Party allowed me to put my name to the Bill. The only thing I regret is that it is not tabled on the Order Paper for all Stages. That would have been helpful. Perhaps the acting leader can see whether it is possible.