Professor Brendan Kelly:

I thank the Deputy. The Bill sets out criteria for involuntary admission. I do not see that the Minister has suggested any changes to that. There are fundamentally two parts to that: a risk-based criterion and also a fundamentally treatment-based criterion. The criteria for treatment without consent, following such admission without consent is, again, risk based and treatment based. The treatment-based ones in the amendments are now consistent. That is something greatly to be welcomed. It introduces clarity, but the first part, the risk parts, remain different. It is not statistically possible to predict adverse outcomes in this area. Therefore, the inclusion of risk as a basis for doing anything without the person's consent is dubious and, certainly, it is not sufficient to justify deprivation of liberty. It is the view of the organisation that this should be based entirely on need for treatment, not on risk assessments which are of extremely dubious provenance, to put it mildly.