Insanity Bill to correct justice system flaw

A BILL to correct a major flaw in the way the criminal justice system deals with people with a mental illness who have committed a crime has been introduced in the Dáil.

The Criminal Law (Insanity) Bill corrects what the Minister of State for Health John Moloney described as a “relatively black and white situation where a person either required in-patient treatment or the person was completely cured”. Because of an omission in the 2006 Act the mental health review board was reluctant to order the release of patients “who might be considered suitable for discharge subject to conditions” because it had no powers effectively to enforce such conditions.

The Minister said “this has resulted in difficulties, not only for the patients concerned, but also for the Central Mental Hospital, whose limited capacity is being used up by the retention of patients who might otherwise be considered for conditional discharge under the Act”.

The Bill allows for the return of a person released conditionally “if there is any material breach” of the discharge order.

Fine Gael justice spokesman Alan Shatter welcomed the changes in the legislation but criticised the title of the Bill which he said should cite “mental health” and not “insanity”. Mr Shatter said: “I do not understand why we have to use this sort of pejorative language for something that is fully recognised as a sickness.”

He asked “why are we reverting to a form of language in the criminal law area that has been outdated for two decades but was apparently regarded as acceptable in 2006?”

He said there was still legislation in place, which referred to people as lunatics. “That is 18th-century wording.”