Mental Health Commission to advertise abroad for tribunal staff

A group of Irish and international non-governmental-organisations say a stand-off between the Mental Health Commission and the Irish Hospital Consultants Association is resulting in a breach of patients' human rights.

The Irish Medical Association and the Mental Health Commission have been involved in an 18-month stand-off over appointments to the mental health tribunals.

The tribunals were intended to review cases where people had been admitted to institutions involuntarily, but they have yet to come into existence, four years after legislation enabling them was passed.

The Mental Health Commission now says it will place advertisements at home and abroad to find qualified staff willing to sit on the tribunals.