Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 34:

In page 62, to delete lines 28 and 29 and substitute the following: “ “A person who fulfils the criteria for detention under the amended Act to the 2001 Principal Act and is resident in an approved centre for mental health treatment.”.”.

The current definition of a person prohibited from jury duty in the principal Act is a person who suffers or has suffered from mental illness or mental disability and, on account of that condition, either is a resident in a hospital or other similar institution or regularly attends for treatment by a medical practitioner. That is an extremely broad definition that excludes a large number of citizens with mental health difficulties. Under that definition the person could be in recovery or be seeing his or her medical practitioner regularly in order to stay in recovery yet the person is still deemed prohibited from or not eligible for jury duty. The Act on one hand extends the right to sit for jury duty to a cohort of people with one type of disability - for example, blind people will be included in this - while, on the other, denying the rights of another cohort of people with disabilities, once again pitting physical and mental health against each other rather than ensuring parity.

I know people who are long term under the care of a medical practitioner for mental ill health, who are in recovery and who are well able to sit for jury duty. This section prohibits them from doing so.