Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

As I indicated on Second Stage, the Government intention is to replace the term "disability". This term was imported directly from the 1946 order into the current text of the Bill. The term was differently understood and had a different connotation then from what it has now. Clearly, its use in the particular context of the provision is not only inappropriate, but does not achieve the underlying intention. It is proposed to draw on the recent carefully developed concept of mental disorder from the Mental Health Act 2001. This is what the amendment does and it is intended to encapsulate what is intended here through reliance on that concept. I am glad to cast aside the language of the 1940s. Public health considerations go further than the threat posed by certain infectious diseases and I would be unwilling to confine the scope of the provision much further than is provided here.