Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

The Deputy should not be too gracious.

In view of what was stated, it does not involve a point of principle, although I slightly distrust the constant moving of language, which occurs in the area of mental health particularly. Some of the phrases used with technical meaning in old Victorian criminal law and psychiatric books have completely gone out of currency. The term "imbecile" had a clear meaning to a Victorian or Edwardian doctor which it no longer has. Now it is term of common abuse and has no such meaning. Given that the Mental Health Commission is persuaded that there is an argument for not aligning the two definitions and that Deputy Costello has moved his amendment I propose, with the leave of the House, to deal with all these amendments along those lines.

To return to Deputy Gerard Murphy's proposal that we set out the ingredients, I made the point about severe disturbances in mood but that would be a very low threshold to present in a criminal justice trial. We all know what a severe disturbance in mood can entail. In those circumstances I ask the Deputy to accept that sometimes in the interests of defining a term one sets out three, four or five definitions, or symptoms in this instance, and find they do not encompass some other condition. This House might set out five or six symptoms in a Bill without thinking around the corner to other possible symptoms.

There is a canon of legal construction namely, expressio unius personae vel rei, est exclusio alterius, the express mention of one person or thing is the exclusion of another. On that basis we would tread on somewhat dangerous ground if we were to set out the symptoms in sub-paragraphs (a) to (e), as suggested by Deputy Gerard Murphy. I appreciate, however, that his amendment is constructively intended.

If the House agrees to accept Deputy Costello's amendment, and if it takes on board my comments about the Mental Health Commission's accepting the need for the variation I mentioned, we could reach consensus on those amendments.

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