Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

I am opposing this amendment and the more I hear the argument in favour of it, the more I am opposed to it. Section 3(2) states:

An accused person shall be deemed unfit to be tried if he or she is unable by reason of mental disorder to understand the nature or course of the proceedings so as to-

(a) plead to the charge,

(b) instruct a legal representative,

(c) make a proper defence,

(d) in the case of a trail by jury, challenge a juror to whom he or she might wish to object, or

(e) understand the evidence.

I see no reason for the requirement that the opinion of two doctors, presumably with psychiatric experience, be a prerequisite to making a decision which would stare a judge in the face. Sometimes one sees people in court who clearly are unfit to be tried. There is no need to bring two doctors to tell the court what is blindingly obvious and the person is probably well known to the court as somebody who is unfit to be tried. There is no point having a trial if the person is unable to participate because of his or her florid behaviour. In my view, having two doctors in those circumstances would not be practical.

Senator Henry has perhaps let the cat out of the bag because what she is really saying is that nobody should be going down that line unless two doctors have given the green light as to whether there is a facility suitable to contain him or her. We cannot have a situation where the psychiatric profession or its representatives have a veto over a decision as to whether somebody is fit to plead, based on whether the facilities are available to deal with him or her. One is either fit to plead or not; the consequences of that are a different matter. We cannot have a situation where a doctor can say the facilities are not available or that the person caused a great deal of trouble. Section 3(2) provides basic protection for the accused and I do not believe that two psychiatrists or doctors of any kind should be allowed to override the court's function, which is not to proceed with a trial if subsection (2) applies.