Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

First, it is important to examine what is contained in the Bill in this regard. Schedule 1 states:

1.—The Review Board shall consist of a chairperson and such number of members as the Minister, after consultation with the Minister for Health and Children, may from time to time as the occasion requires appoint. The Review Board shall have as an ordinary member, at least one consultant psychiatrist [so the Senator can rest assured that such a person will certainly be there].

2.—The chairperson shall have had not less than 10 years' experience as a practising barrister or practising solicitor ending immediately before his or her appointment or shall be a judge of or former judge of the Circuit Court, High Court or Supreme Court.

The mental health review board will be independent in the discharge of its functions. It is relevant also that the review board can review detentions. The purpose of the board is to advise and come to conclusions about whether a person should continue to be detained. One of the problems I have at the moment is that I am vested, as Minister, with powers of release or detention of persons who have been adjudged guilty but insane. Although it says "guilty but insane", it means not guilty and it is an acquittal.

In the context of deciding what one does with people who have been ordered to be detained in the Central Mental Hospital, following such a decision, one must rely on the expert opinion of psychiatrists who have viewed and interviewed such persons. In the last analysis, however, it is somewhat undesirable that it should fall to a political officeholder, such as myself, simply to operate on the basis of a very unstructured process in which the fate of a person who has been found not guilty, despite the wording of the verdict, lies in the Minister's hands. This is not something that happens every so often. I make detailed decisions on a weekly basis, sometimes making a number of such decisions each week, about whether persons should be allowed out permanently or temporarily to attend courses, visit family members, take up educational opportunities or go to work or on holidays, supervised and unsupervised. They are immensely complex decisions. The tribunals system under the other Act has a specific purpose, which is to review the decisions of psychiatrists. However, this body has a qualitatively different function, which is to make findings and to review the condition of people in one particular circumstance.