Camillus Glynn (Fianna Fail)

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire. I am pleased to speak on Second Stage of the Criminal Law (Insanity) Bill 2002. It would be an understatement to say it represents a step forward as it is comparable to jumping the Grand Canyon. While I acknowledge the great impact of the Mental Treatment Act 1945 in the delivery of psychiatric services, it had shortcomings in many respects. Given the circumstances that this Bill attempts to address, it is difficult to give a textbook example of what we are talking about. A number of things will naturally come to the fore such as the rights of the individual, the rights of this Legislature and its obligations to society, and the rights of individuals who may have committed the most heinous crimes, albeit that they may be deemed insane or not responsible for their actions. Nevertheless, we must recognise the position of the victim.

The purpose of the Bill is to clarify, modernise and reform the law on criminal insanity and fitness to be tried, and on related issues. I regret that it has been said that the psychiatric services are the Cinderella services – that is partly true but not totally so. The Bill will also bring into line the jurisprudence of the European Convention on Human Rights which will soon be given further effect in domestic law in accordance with the provisions of the European Convention on the Human Rights Bill 2001. At present, the convention is law for Ireland on the international plane but it is not part of domestic law in Ireland, which is a nonsense.

The Bill provides for extensive new provisions dealing with fitness to be tried, which term will now apply rather than fitness to plead. The Bill also provides for new rules regarding appeals against such findings, a statutory definition and restatement of the text for criminal insanity based on the existing rules at common law as developed in Ireland. A new verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity will replace the existing guilty but insane, and there is a new plea of guilty but with diminished responsibility in the case of murder.

The Bill implements certain recommendations made in the third interim report of the inter-departmental committee on mentally ill and maladjusted persons, the Henchy committee – referred to by Senator Henry and others – which was published in 1978. The Bill accommodates criminal justice elements and the need to have regard to the treatment aspect of mental health legislation. At present, if there is any question arising as to the competence or fitness of an accused person to be tried – this is the core of the Bill and makes a nonsense of what existed heretofore – the Lunacy (Ireland) Act 1821 applies, despite there being no definition of fitness. This addresses that anomaly. As Senator Kett said, applying a Bill from the Dark Ages in 2003 is not to be countenanced.

Planning for the Future of the Psychiatric Service, A Policy Document, brought forward the concept of psychiatric patients or people suffering from psychiatric illnesses and the concept of devolving the service into the community. It must be acknowledged that major resources have been moved into that area and, though much remains to be done, a lot has been done to date. I compliment Senator Henry who made a very practical reference to people who find themselves in various situations.