The Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, has changed a controversial clause in the Immigration Bill which would have permitted the refusal of entry to the State of people with a "mental disorder".
Mr McDowell also yielded to Opposition demands for more time to debate the emergency legislation.
While the Minister intended to rush through all stages of the Dáil debate yesterday, he allowed additional time this morning to complete the Dáil debate.
The Opposition parties continued yesterday to condemn the Bill, which follows a High Court ruling that the law governing the entry and control of immigrants in the State was unconstitutional.
While Government sought to clear the Bill in a one-day debate last Thursday, the legislation will not pass to the Seanad for final stage debate until next Wednesday, almost a fortnight after the Government's first deadline.
The changed definition of mental illness modifies provisions which were likened by the Independent senator, Mr Joe O'Toole, to "Nazism at its worst".
This was a reference to a provision introduced last week by the the Minister of State for Justice, Mr Brian Lenihan, which allowed the refusal of entry to people with a "mental disorder" as defined by the Mental Health Act, 2001.
Mr McDowell rejected any suggestion that Irish immigration legislation was "Nazi, jackboot-like and draconian" but he acknowledged the "furore" created by the reference to the definitions in the 2001 Act.
In response, Mr McDowell introduced a new clause allowing the refusal of entry to people with "profound mental disturbance, that is to say, manifest conditions of psychotic disturbance with agitation, delirium, hallucinations or confusion".
Stating that he hoped the new definition "does not cause offence to anybody", Mr McDowell said the provision imposed "the same right of exclusion from Ireland of non-nationals as currently exists for EU nationals".
Mr McDowell said that psychiatric infirmity was a ground on which entry to the EU may be refused but said he had been unhappy with the formulations in the 1946 Aliens Order "and its now long-gone references to imbeciles".
"I felt the language was Victorian. We decided to introduce a Bill that was in line with our EU entitlements," he said yesterday.
However, Schizophrenia Ireland denounced the measure. Its director, Mr John Saunders, said the clause should be withdrawn because it reflected a "very erroneous and outdated view of mental illness". Fine Gael's Justice spokesman, Mr John Deasy, said some of the drafting of the Bill was "astonishing".
"A reference to disability was changed to mental disorder and we now have a list of classifications," he said.
Mr Joe Costello of Labour accused Mr McDowell of "trying to bulldoze through a Bill about which there is a great deal of concern among civil liberties organisations".
