Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

I am resisting all bad thoughts at the moment.

To reply to Deputy Ó Snodaigh, this is an exceptional power. There are designated centres in place. The Mental Health Commission would have to express a view on this and it is extremely unlikely, therefore, that it would be used in an abusive way because the Mental Health Commission would say we are going down the wrong track in this particular case. It is not as if a Minister for Health and Children could do this overnight in consort with me and get away with it. If that were to happen the Mental Health Commission would have to be involved in the plan. I want to quote from the Mental Health Commission's submission to the Department on the Bill as passed by the Seanad. It states:

The consultation by the Minister for Health and Children with the Mental Health Commission in relation to the designation of psychiatric centres, apart from the Central Mental Hospital, as designated centres is welcome. [That is section 2(2)(a)]. However, it is the view of the Mental Health Commission that the designated centre should also meet the criteria for registration as an approved centre as per the Mental Health Act 2001 and be so registered. The Mental Health Commission also wishes to highlight that if part of a prison is deemed to be a designated centre, then the mental health services provided in the prison will come within the remit of the Inspector of Mental Health Services and the Mental Health Commission.

The Mental Health Commission has examined this provision and it is saying this cannot be used to put it off campus, so to speak. If it is used for that purpose, it will have a function in regard to it.

I realise it is probably an extreme case and that this may only happen on a handful of occasions but if we are dealing with somebody who is beyond therapy, who cannot benefit from drugs or therapy of a counselling kind or whatever, a psychopathic, highly dangerous person who cannot be accommodated in anything approaching a normal mental health institution, there should be some means of dealing with those very rare cases. The safeguards being put in the Bill to the effect that the initiative must come from the Minister for Health and Children, that it must be done with the consent of the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform and that the Mental Health Commission must be involved in the whole process and take on a supervisory role, means it is not likely to widen out into some abusive arrangement. In those circumstances, I ask the Deputies to accept the amendments.

See this speech in context