Liam Quaide (Cork East, Social Democrats)

I move amendment No. 52:

In page 69, between lines 6 and 7, to insert the following:

“Chemical restraint

57. (1) In this section, “chemical restraint” means the use of medication to control or modify a person’s behaviour when no medically identified condition is being treated, or where the treatment is not necessary for the condition or the intended effect of the drug is to sedate the person for convenience or disciplinary purposes.

(2) A person shall not apply chemical means of bodily restraint to a person unless such restraint is determined, in accordance with the rules made under subsection (3), to prevent the person from injuring himself or herself or others and unless the chemical restraint complies with such rules.

(3) The Commission shall make rules providing for the application of chemical restraint on a person.

(4) Chemical restraint should be used only in exceptional circumstances, where there is no safe alternative and for as limited a time as possible.

(5) Each approved inpatient facility will keep a register of the use of chemical restraint, and each use of chemical restraint shall be recorded in the register, and on the person’s clinical file, in addition to any other information required by the Commission, as set out in the Commission’s rules made under subsection (3).

(6) In this section, a “person” includes involuntary persons, intermediate persons and persons detained in the Central Mental Hospital or in a designated centre (within the meaning of the Criminal Law (Insanity) Act 2006) but does not include voluntary persons.

(7) A person who contravenes this section or a rule made under this section shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding €5,000.”.

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