Dan Boyle (Green Party)

The Green Party understands the circumstances surrounding the extraordinary introduction of this Bill and is supportive of it but with reservations. Our mental health legislation is under review and there is a need to complete that review and to introduce large-scale amendments to existing legislation.

We have come a long way from the 19th century legislation which referred to people with mental illness as idiots. However, we still suffer terms that are not in the interests of people who suffer from mental illness. This legislation refers to periods of detention rather than to hospitalisation or care periods. As stated by the Minister in her opening contribution, we are speaking about people deprived of liberty for medical reasons.

The Green Party and I believe that existing legislation is flawed in terms of how it is framed, access to lawyers for the mental health tribunals and the ability and capacity of people to respond to those tribunals. A further difficulty arises in terms of statistics in regard to access to those tribunals and their effectiveness. On those terms, many of the reservations expressed by Senator O'Toole are valid. This means we must return to this debate and quickly. We must be informed also by the many mental health advocates who have expressed concerns about existing legislation and the need for it to be updated.

I understand the difficulty in which the Minister, the Department, the Government and apparatus of State will find themselves if this legislation is not passed this evening. The need potentially to recommit more than 200 people is not something the State should have to consider without having in place proper legislation. The deeper concerns in terms of getting a better balance between the ability of clinicians to define the mental health needs of people who access the service and the legal rights of people who find themselves accessing such services is a balance we have not got right to date. It is a debate to which we will need to return.

I hope the Minister will leave the Chamber tonight having put in place the legislation required to close this particular loophole and will concentrate her mind on the need for a wide-ranging and seriously broad re-interpretation of our mental health legislation.