Annie Hoey (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I echo Senator Black's words of gratitude to some of the people we have been working, particularly members of Mental Health Reform and some others who have been good and have done as much work as the Department has done on this legislation. They have been casting an eye over it, advising and putting forward different ways in which it could be tied in with human rights. A question has come up on which I ask the Minister for clarity. It may just be my reading of this but I am not at all clear about how the Government amendments address the AHD exclusion for involuntary people. AHDs were always legally binding where a person was not detained under Part 4 of the Mental Health Act. The text still states that the AHD shall be complied with unless the person is detained under Part 4 of the Mental Health (Criminal Law) Act. From my reading of this, it still excludes involuntary people from legally binding AHDs. When this legislation was going through various discussions and Stages I understood that the Government would only exclude people detained under the Criminal Law (Insanity) Act. However, the wording here seems to suggest that those detained under Part 4 of the Mental Health Act 2001 will also be excluded. Is this a technicality or am I and others misreading it? This is concerning for some of the advocacy groups that have been reading through the legislation. Will the Minister clarify exactly what the position is?