The Minister for Justice has promised the forthcoming reform of the criminal insanity law will bring "ground-breaking" changes to legislation, which dates back to the 1800s.
Responding to questions about the absconding of convicted murderer John Gallagher from the Central Mental Hospital (CMH) last weekend, Mr O'Donoghue said he had no progress to report in the search for the missing man.
Gallagher (34), had been a patient in Dundrum since his conviction for the 1988 double murder of his girlfriend Anne Gillespie and her mother Annie at Sligo General Hospital. The Garda and the director of the CMH have said he is no longer considered dangerous, but have advised the public to inform gardai if they encounter him. Mr O'Donoghue acknowledged yesterday the law of criminal insanity, under which Gallagher had been detained, was "inadequate in the context of the development of psychiatry". The Criminal Law (Insanity) Bill, which is due for publication shortly, would be "a groundbreaking piece of legislation dealing with the whole issue of mental illness and crime".
Mr O'Donoghue said that Gallagher's sentence had been reviewed several times by the Sentence Review Group. "As Minister for Justice, I would be very foolish if I did not rely on their advice," he said. He understood Gallagher had been doing "quite well" on his pre-release programme.
Meanwhile, a number of sighting of Gallagher have been reported to gardai around the country but no new leads have been provided to police. A Garda spokesman yesterday confirmed that detectives at Pearse Street had followed up on an alleged sighting of Gallagher in The Kitchen nightclub in Temple Bar on Sunday night, but it was not him. Gardai have issued a description of Gallagher and the motorbike he was riding to Interpol and the theory that he is in Britain is still being examined.