Mary Henry (Independent)

This is all very well, but there are no practical provisions in the Bill to make available resources to allow people to be maintained at the facility. The Minister is aware of the utterly appalling condition of the Central Mental Hospital. Approximately 30 beds at the hospital are unavailable because of an embargo on staff recruitment. What is the hospital supposed to do with people sent to it given the lack of accommodation? I suggest that whoever is running the facility must be given some say as to whether the hospital is in a position to take people in. If all 100 beds were operating but full, how would the hospital accommodate an extra ten people sent to it?

One must consider the practicalities at some stage. The receiving facility will face a very serious problem if it is not in a position to place persons sent to it in safe custody. What is the hospital to do if it has no room to spare? I suggest the hospital staff should be listened to for that reason rather than to encourage the Minister to provide them with a power of veto. The Bill's enactment will lead to a requirement for resources only in the case of the review board. That is not so. The mental health services will also require resourcing and, certainly, money, to detain people properly. If the clinical director of the relevant centre has no beds available, he or she should be permitted to inform the courts. It is not a question of providing a veto; it is one of practicality.