Ms Áine Flynn:

I want to pick up on the point about deprivation of liberty and colleagues have recited some of the history of that. That was originally to be dealt with by way of Part 13, which was going to be inserted into this Act. There was a public consultation at the end of 2017 by the Department of Health, which proposed certain deprivation of liberty safeguards.

We hope they end up being called protection of liberty safeguards, which would be a better starting point. They propose an intensively court-based process under Part 5 of this Act. I think all the submissions made in the public consultation asked not to do it that way. Quite a bit was done about rethinking that. We were involved in consultation with the Department of Health. Then, I am afraid, possibly Covid got in the way, but it needs attention and, as colleagues said, there will be a gap in the absence of those safeguards. Mr Harris referred to the AC v. Cork University Hospital case, which has amply demonstrated where that gap will be.

Access to legal representation will have to be available. There are access to justice guarantees in the UN convention. We do not need look to that convention for them, but they make it crucial that people have proper access to representation in court processes provided for under the Act. The Act provides for a scheme of legal aid on accessible terms to the relevant person under Part 5. We have been clear that----