I move:—
Before sub-section (3) to insert a new sub-section as follows:—
( ) Section 259 and sub-section (4) of Section 260 of the Mental Treatment Act, 1945 (No. 19 of 1945) are hereby repealed.
Public Authorities (Judicial Proceedings) Bill, 1954—Committee and Final Stages.
Section 1 agreed to.
SECTION 2.
The purpose of this amendment is to repeal Sections 259 and 260 (4) of the Mental Treatment Act, 1945.
Section 259 provides for a six months' limitation period where proceedings are taken by a person who has been detained in a mental institution, the time to run from the date of the cesser of the detention. Section 260 (4) says that the proceedings shall for the purposes of Section 259 and the Public Authorities Protection Act, 1893, be deemed to have been commenced on the date on which notice of the application for leave of the High Court to institute the proceedings was given to the person against whom the proceedings are to be brought.
The proposed repeal of these two provisions of the 1945 Act is consequential on the repeal of the Public Authorities Protection Act, 1893.
I understand that the effect of this amendment is that an ex-patient will be in a position to institute proceedings against, say, a mental hospital within any period after he has been discharged from the hospital. I gather that, formerly, he was limited to six months. Therefore, it will not be necessary for him to go to the High Court to get the permission of the High Court to do so.
The period of limitation will be four years as it is for false imprisonment. We hope to have a Statute of Limitations Bill fairly soon which will deal with all periods of limitation for actions. The principle of the present Bill is to place all persons, whether public authorities or not, on the same footing, and that principle will be followed in the Statute of Limitations Bill also.
Amendment agreed to.
Section 2, as amended, agreed to.
Section 3 agreed to.
Title agreed to.
Agreed to take the remaining Stages now.
Bill reported with amendment, received for final consideration, and passed.