Maire Devine (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

That is a novel and interesting piece of research which I am sure we will bring to the climate action committee.

I propose an amendment to amend the Order of Business to take No. 13 before No. 1. The Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Act 2015 established several new legal provisions to address issues of consent and capacity in the provision of healthcare treatments. One such provision was the statutory right to develop and have respected, as practicable, advance healthcare directives where a person specified the action to be taken and the decisions to be made in the future while he or she had capacity. All of us would agree that is an important human rights issue. The difficulty, and what this Bill addresses, is the involuntary detention of patients where that is not recognised. If one is involuntarily detained that does not mean one does not have capacity.

I welcome representatives of Mental Health Reform, who are in the Gallery. They worked closely on this Bill with the assistance of Deputy Pat Buckley.

In terms of human rights, we have come a long way along the road to enlightenment from the time of the lunacy Act when everything was taken from people, not just their liberty but their ability to speak, make decisions and have capacity to do what they wanted to do. This Bill will move us further along the road to enlightenment in that regard. I would be delighted if the Leader would accept my amendment - nobody will create any hassle over it - and allow this Bill to progress through this House and become legislation.