Professor Brendan Kelly:

There has been engagement with the Department of Health. The amendments that appeared yesterday afternoon suggest that the concerns have been heard to a significant degree but not fully. Some of the amendments suggest that it will be more possible to administer treatment. However, the criteria for treatment without consent are different from the criteria for admission without consent, although with increased overlap based on the ministerial amendments suggested.

The motivation has been human rights based for much of this with particular focus rightly the rights to liberty and bodily integrity. I believe we also need to look at the right to treatment, the right to mental health and the right to access services. Given the relatively low rate of involuntary admission in Ireland, the key human rights issue for mental health services is not so much protection from excessive hospitalisation but rather access to services.