Mr. James Kelly:

The Deputy's question speaks to resources more than anything else because obviously the most appropriate environment for someone to be treated for mental ill health is in a mental health facility.

There is nothing in the proposed Bill that explicitly states a person can be transferred from an accident and emergency department to an approved centre, for instance, if someone presents at an accident and emergency department with mental health difficulties and the psychiatric liaison service considers that he or she needs to have acute treatment. Such persons can continue to be transferred from a hospital under the proposed updated Act but we have not included anything on the resourcing of accident and emergency departments or anything like that in the proposed Bill.