A McM

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judge: Clarke C.J.,MacMenamin J.,O'Malley J.
• Judgment Date: 30 November 2017
• Neutral Citation: [2017] IESCDET 126
• Court: Supreme Court
• Date: 30 November 2017

[2017] IESCDET 126

THE SUPREME COURT

DETERMINATION

Clarke C.J.

MacMenamin J.

O'Malley J.

IN THE MATTER OF A McM

A WARD OF COURT / APPLICANT

APPLICATION FOR LEAVE TO APPEAL TO WHICH ARTICLE 34.5.4° OF THE CONSTITUTION APPLIES.

Result: The Court grants leave to the applicant to appeal to this Court

Reasons Given:

Background

1 After being convicted of an offence or offences not specified in the papers the applicant was sentenced to a lengthy term of imprisonment. It appears that he served a significant part of the sentence in the Central Mental Hospital (‘the Hospital’) and that he was a patient there in the days prior to his release date. Four days before that date the respondent (‘the HSE’) applied to the President of the High Court for an order for the further detention of the applicant in the Hospital, authorised by reference to the inherent jurisdiction of the Court, with a view to making an application to have him made a ward of court. A detention order was made and in due course the President made an order (on the 27th March 2017) declaring the applicant to be of unsound mind and ordering his continued detention in the Hospital. Ancillary orders were made in respect of the appointment of a Committee, the treatment of the applicant while in the Hospital and listing the matter for review after a period of six months.

2 The applicant's legal representatives have objected to this procedure throughout. Their case is that the applicant satisfies the criteria for detention pursuant to the provisions of the Mental Health Act 2001 and that his procedural protections would be greater under that statutory scheme.

Discussion

3 As is clear from a range of determinations made by this Court since the 33rd Amendment to the Constitution came into force, the constitutional function of this Court is no longer that of an appeal court designed to correct alleged errors by the trial court. Where it is said that the High Court has simply been in error in some respect the constitutional regime now in place confers jurisdiction to correct any such error as may be established on the Court of Appeal. An appeal to this Court, whether directly from the High Court under Article 34.5.4 or from the Court of Appeal under Article 34.5.3, requires that it be established that the decision sought to be appealed against involves a matter of general public importance or that it is otherwise in the interests of justice to allow...