Dr. Charles O'Mahony:

One of the positive things in the Bill is the alignment of the guiding principles with the Assisted Decision Making (Capacity) Act 2015. One of the regrettable things about the 2001 Act was that the notion of best interests in respect of adults was used by the courts to let some mental health services off when they did not comply with the legislation. The courts took a very paternalistic approach in a number of cases where individuals had challenged the legality of their detention. It is very important that there is a push back against any attempt to undermine those revised guiding principles in the Bill or any suggestion that these principles be changed.

The language is very important. Head 5, section 4(9) limits the scope of the revised guiding principles with a caveat that the provision of mental health services is subject to the availability of resources. This should be deleted because it could undermine the more positive guiding principles that are now included in the Bill. I encourage the committee to take a look at that and recommend the removal of that caveat to the revised guiding principles.