Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

The Minister did not accept a similar amendment on Committee Stage on the basis that it was neither necessary nor desirable. Provision on these lines, which is akin to a reversal of the burden of proof, would be objectionable as it would alter fundamentally existing law on these cases. The amendment also ignores the position that fitness to plead or, as it will be called following the enactment of the legislation, fitness to be tried, is a medico-legal issue. Most fundamentally, it does not relate to the guilt or innocence of the persons concerned.