New legislation which will allow the courts to refer people with mental illness for medical treatment rather than send them to prison has been signed into law.
Minister for Justice Michael McDowell said today that the Criminal Law (Insanity) Act 2006 will come into force on June 1 st.
The Minister said a new independent Mental Health (Criminal Law) Review Board will be established under the Act, in line with the Convention on Human Rights.
It will regularly review all cases where people found not guilty by reason of insanity or who are found unfit to be tried, including those detained under military law.
The board will also be responsible for the cases of those convicted of crimes who subsequently become mentally ill while serving their sentences in prison. It will have the power to discharge such people unconditionally.
The Act also introduces the concept of diminished responsibility into Irish law for the offence of murder, which carries a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment.
Mr McDowell said there was no need to apply the concept to other crimes which do not carry mandatory sentences, because the court can already take into account the mental condition of the convicted person when considering a sentence.
"This is a most significant and historic piece of legislation. The Act will move our law, practice and administration and its outmoded concepts in this whole area from its dark origins in the 19th century and before, right up to the more enlightened and progressive ethos of the present day," Mr McDowell said.
The provisions in the Act arise mainly from recommendations in the so-called Henchy Committee Report on mentally ill people, published in 1978.
Clear statutory rules on the defence of insanity in a criminal case and on the related issue of a person's fitness to plead before a court are contained in the legislation, the Minister said. They are based on the common law position developed over many years.
"In many respects it provides a modern, balanced and complementary approach as between the overlapping roles and responsibilities of the criminal justice system on the one hand and medical and psychological sciences on the other, in cases where, due to mental disorder the requisite intent may not have been formed, or the capacity to understand the criminal justice process may not be present," Mr McDowell said.