Mary Henry (Independent)

She was absolutely immobile. I would have thought that would have required much more consideration than simply the consent of the parents.

As the Marriage of Lunatics Act is still in force, we might spend another day considering that legislation. Inappropriate language is used in so many Bills, including "weak mind" and "of unsound mind". We introduced legislation before Christmas that again contained the phrase "of unsound mind". This was quite important because "unsound mind" is not defined legally, nor does it have a medical definition. In that legislation a person considered by a garda of a certain rank to be of unsound mind was not considered to be fit to operate a gun shop. That potentially took away a person's livelihood on grounds that were neither legal nor medical. We need to introduce a sense of urgency into the matter and I am sure the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform officials will do so.

I am most grateful to the Minister of State for his and the Government's response to the Bill. I will keep an eagle eye on its progress, probably from the Gallery as opposed to from here.