Mental Health Bill 2024: Committee Stage
Seanad Éireann — 2025-12-02
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Mary Butler (FF), Waterford

I would like to for a second because I cannot leave that unchallenged. The Mental Health Bill does not preclude anyone with addiction issues from accessing mental health services where the admission is for the purposes of treating the person’s mental disorder or mental health difficulty primarily. There may be addiction issues also, but such issues are not only about drugs. They can involve alcohol and gambling, and these relate to dual diagnosis also. I am working with a man who has mental health challenges and who is addicted to gambling. That entails dual diagnosis. It is not the case that dual diagnosis has to relate only to drugs. That is the first point.
What the Senator is trying to say is that dual diagnosis is about drug addiction and mental health issues. It is not exclusively about them as there are many addictions.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2025-12-02/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:23+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-02