Ms Saoirse Brady:

The only thing I would say on the decision support service is that we really need to think about the practicalities and the logistics of people in prison being able to access that once it is brought in. Obviously we have talked a lot about resourcing the gardaí and how they are under-resourced. I would say the same for the Irish Prison Service. Prison officers are not trained in how to deal with mental health issues in the way that sometimes they need to be. It is an unfair pressure that is put on them. That is something we really need to think about. The report we mentioned earlier talks about the under-resourcing of interpretation services for people who may be deaf or of people being isolated in their cells because they cannot cope with the physical conditions in prison due to their disability. When there is overcrowding that is an issue as well. People should be in single cells.

On Deputy Cairn's other point regarding the exclusion of people involuntarily detained, along with our colleagues in mental health reform we have written to the Taoiseach on this very recently. We think this should be addressed now. It will need to be addressed at some point so why would we kick it down the road? There is a huge issue there for the exclusion of people who are involuntarily detained particularly around things like advanced healthcare directives. We would hope that would be addressed before the Act is finalised even if it is being pushed through at a very fast pace.