Mary Henry (Independent)

I move amendment No. 5:

In page 4, subsection (1), between lines 8 and 9, to insert the following definition:

"'Mental Health Tribunal' means the Mental Health Tribunal established under Part III of the Mental Health Act 2001 with the additional condition that whendetermining matters in relation to a patient detained under this Act the Chairperson shall be a Judge of the Court which exercised criminal jurisdiction in relation to the patient;".

As the Minister knows, the Mental Health Act has proposed mental health tribunals which are in the process of being established. The composition of the commission and the tribunals looks like being eminently sensible. The membership of the commission will consist of a person with not less than ten years' experience as a practising barrister or solicitor in the State, ending immediately before his or her appointment to the commission; three registered medical practitioners, two of whom shall be consultant psychiatrists who are to have a special interest and expertise in the mental health service; two representatives of registered nurses whose names are with An Bord Altranais and who have psychiatric training; one representative social worker with special interest in this area; one representative psychologist with a special interest and expertise in the provision of mental health services; one representative of the interests of the general public; and three members from voluntary bodies promoting the interests of persons suffering from mental illness, at least two of whom shall be a person who suffers from or has suffered from a mental illness. In the latter case, such people will be easy to find because some 25% of us suffer from some form of mental illness during our lives. There will also be one representative of the chief executives of the health boards, although I do not know how they will find such a person given the boards are being abolished. In addition, not less than four members of the commission shall be women, and not less than four shall be men.

When there is one good commission which is to bring forward tribunals, why on earth does the Minister not use that and save the taxpayer some money? The Bill's explanatory memorandum states "it is not anticipated that the proposals in the Bill will have significant financial or staffing implications", but I have never known anything that did not cost something. The establishment of the mental health review board will certainly cost money. It would be sufficient for the Minister to appoint as chairperson of the tribunal a judge of the court which exercised criminal jurisdiction in relation to the patient.

Section 10, which provides for theestablishment of a mental health review board, does not include much information as to what sort of people should be on it. That information is well laid out in the Mental Health Act. The Minister could save his Department andthe taxpayer a great deal of time, trouble and expense by accepting that the tribunals, asestablished by the Mental Health Act, could review such cases. After all, the same sort of people will make up the membership both of the tribunals and the mental health review board, and they will be looking for the same sort of things. The person affected will have the same rights, whether they have been detained under this Bill, once enacted, or under the Mental Health Act. I would have thought the Minister could easily accept this amendment.