Mary Henry (Independent)

I move amendment No. 2:

In page 4, subsection (1), to delete lines 6 to 8 and substitute the following definition:

"'mental disorder' has the meaning ascribed to mental disorder within the meaning of the Mental Health Act 2001;".

While the Bill may be short it is very important. As I said when we began the debate, it repeals an Act, which is more than 120 years old and we should do our best to ensure it complies with modern terminology. We put considerable work into the Mental Health Act during its passage through both Houses of the Oireachtas to ensure this happened. The Bill before us deals with the same kind of people dealt with under the Mental Health Act except that they have or are suspected of having committed crimes. We should try to afford them the same rights and respect that apply to ordinary psychiatric patients under the Mental Health Act.

The definition in the Bill is rather old-fashioned. It describes "mental disorder" as including "mental illness, mental handicap [a phrase now rarely used], dementia or any disease of the mind but does not include intoxication". My amendments seek to mirror as far as possible what is contained in the Mental Health Act so we do not spend considerable time deciding what is mental disorder as a result of having different definitions in two Acts. The definition of mental disorder in the Mental Health Act 2001 is very good and comprehensive and states it means "mental illness, severe dementia or significant intellectual disability". The change in terminology is worth considering. The section of the Mental Health Act continues "because of the illness, disability or dementia, there is a serious likelihood of the person concerned causing immediate and serious harm to himself or herself or to other persons". This reflects exactly what we want in the Bill before us.

The section continues "because of the severity of the illness, disability or dementia, the judgment of the person concerned is so impaired that failure to admit the person to an approved centre would be likely to lead to a serious deterioration in his or her condition or would prevent the administration of appropriate treatment that could be given only by such admission". This again is exactly what we want in removing the persons from the courts to a therapeutic unit. The section then states "the reception, detention and treatment of the person concerned in an approved centre would be likely to benefit or alleviate the condition of that person to a material extent". This again is what we want because if at all possible we want to return them to a state of mental normality.

The section finally states:

"mental illness" means a state of mind of a person which affects the person's thinking, perceiving, emotion or judgment and which seriously impairs the mental function of the person to the extent that he or she requires care or medical treatment in his or her own interest or in the interest of other persons;

The reference to altering their "thinking, perceiving, emotion or judgment" is extraordinarily important when we come to consider whether people are unable or perhaps incapable of knowing the effects of their actions. The section describes severe dementia as "a deterioration of the brain of a person which significantly impairs the intellectual function of the person thereby affecting thought, comprehension and memory and which includes severe psychiatric or behavioural symptoms such as physical aggression". This again forms a very important part of the Bill before us.

The section describes significant intellectual disability, a term much more widely used than mental handicap, as "a state of arrested or incomplete development of mind of a person which includes significant impairment of intelligence and social functioning and abnormally aggressive or seriously irresponsible conduct on the part of the person". This is precisely the sort of person with diminished responsibility addressed by the Bill before us. Rather than having "mental disorder" described as it is in the Bill, we should use the definition already passed by this House and in use in thoseparts of the Mental Health Act already implemented.

My amendments Nos. 137 and 138 seek to use the term "mental disorder" rather than "insanity" in the Title of the Bill. While I have not proposed replacing it everywhere, this should be done. The word "insanity" could be described as stigmatising people whereas "mental disorder" is the term used in medical textbooks these days in place of describing people as insane. Just because we are updating the Trial of Lunatics Act, there is no need to insert a word which is already out of date and we should use a term in common parlance in the psychiatric profession.