Frances Black (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Last Tuesday, the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy O'Gorman, brought the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill 2021 to Cabinet for approval. It is a glaring and worrying omission from the soon-to-be published Bill that people who are involuntarily detained under the Mental Health Act 2001 will not be afforded their human rights. As Chairman of the Joint Oireachtas Sub-Committee on Mental Health, over a period of months I have chaired meetings as part of the pre-legislative scrutiny of the general scheme of the Mental Health (Amendment) Bill 2021, which will reform the Mental Health Act 2001. The Mental Health (Amendment) Bill 2021 and the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill 2021 are linked and are both hugely important in progressing and realising the rights of people with psychosocial disabilities, rights which they have under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, UNCRPD. I am seriously concerned that the Government will miss this opportunity to meet the State's obligation under the UNCRPD by extending rights around capacity to people with psychosocial disabilities. I am also concerned that we have undertaken pre-legislative scrutiny of the general scheme of the Mental Health (Amendment) Bill 2021 and that two of the Department of Health amendments will require the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill 2021 to be amended. In the programme for Government, Our Shared Future, there is a commitment to commence the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015 to abolish wardships. This is necessary to meet our obligations under the UNCRPD. The Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill 2021 went to Cabinet last Tuesday. It is now expected to be rushed through both Houses within a month. The target is for a commencement date of 20 June for the decision support service. It is very unlikely that that target will be met.

During the very brief pre-legislative scrutiny for the Bill, Mental Health Reform and others highlighted that people involuntarily detained under Part 4 of the Mental Health Act 2001 were excluded from the provisions of the 2015 Act. The Government's mental health policy, Sharing the Vision, is person-centred and underlined by principles of human rights and recovery. Yet, involuntary patients do not have the right to have their advance wishes about treatment respected. People who are detained in hospitals for mental health treatment are specifically excluded from legally-binding advance healthcare directives. It is very worrying that they have no legal right to have their advance wishes respected, even though they had capacity to make decisions about their mental healthcare and treatment at the time of making their directive. There is no other group of individuals that is specifically excluded from this legal right. The exclusion is contrary to international human rights standards, including the UNCRPD. I ask the Minister to address the House to provide clarity on the exclusion of people detained under the Mental Health Act from the provisions of the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill 2021. The omission risks undermining Ireland's commitment to UNCRPD compliance and creating discordance between the legislation and the general scheme of the The Mental Health (Amendment) Bill 2021.