Mary Henry (Independent)

No one denies there has been a significant increase in the amount of resources spent on people with disabilities, so that is not a problem. I cannot remember any other Act where "resources allowing" was written into the Long Title. On the matter of the Bill pertaining to several Departments, what about the Children Act 2001, which spanned several Departments and required considerable resources? The resources have not yet been made available to implement the provisions of the Act but this is beside the point. We did not put in the Long Title of the Act that we would only invest whatever resources were available as we all knew this.

These words were not in the Long Title of the Mental Health Act 2001. We knew there would be trouble regarding resources but we expected resources to be made available. We were not going to say that these words were an excuse for not investing something. As the Leader said, this is about what is available and what can be provided for these people. I am well aware of the extraordinary legislation that sometimes comes from the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform regarding financial implications. I was utterly astonished to read the explanatory memorandum at the end of the Criminal Law Insanity Bill, which states there are no financial implications. Of course there will be difficulties regarding funds and we praise the Government for providing extra resources for this area. However, our argument is with putting an excuse into the Long Title of the Bill which is not present in any other piece of legislation that any of us can recall.