Maria Corrigan (Fianna Fail)

I wish to ask the Leader about the long-promised new legislation, the mental capacity and guardianship Bill. I do not expect the Leader will have an answer this morning but I appreciate if he could perhaps come back to the House on Tuesday's Order of Business with a date when this much-needed legislation will come to the House. I have raised this matter on a number of occasions and we have been expecting it for the past 12 months. I appreciate that it needs to tie in with other legislation and, therefore, there is considerable work to be completed.

I have also asked on previous occasions if arrangements could be made for the Minister for Justice and Law Reform to come to the House to deal specifically with the legal protections that can be put in place to assist people with intellectual disability or a mental health challenge who need to go before the courts on any matter. We have nothing in place to support them. Their basic human rights are disregarded.

I raise both of these issues in the context of a case completed last Monday where a judge directed a jury to return a not guilty verdict in the case of a young woman with an intellectual disability because the criminal Act does not provide that sexual offences other than sexual intercourse committed against people with an intellectual disability would be regarded as criminal. I ask if the Leader could make those arrangements for the Minister to come to the House.