Professor Harry Kennedy:

The Criminal Law (Insanity) Act was revised in 2010 to give us a useful, practical and effective power to conditionally discharge. It has been a huge success when selected appropriately for people where it is a proportionate and clinically helpful thing to do. The crucial thing about extending it more broadly to different groups is having proper evidence that it is effective. Whether it is a good idea or a bad idea is not a way of telling whether it works - and whether it works is the only question of benefit to the patients. We need to do much more research in Ireland on what works here. That is not happening.