Mental Health Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed)
Seanad Éireann — 2025-12-09
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Sarah O'Reilly (AON), Agricultural Panel

I welcome the Minister of State and I welcome the Bill. She has put a lot of time and effort into it but we must do our job of scrutinising it.
I share the sentiments expressed by Senator Black. I support amendments Nos. 83 and 84. People have had their liberty eroded due to being wrongly involuntarily detained. Like my fellow Senators, I want to know why the Government is refusing to follow the expert review group's recommendation of a 14-day time limit on review hearings. Currently, with extensions, people can wait up to 28 days before their detention is reviewed. People are being left almost a month without any independent oversight. The Mental Health Commission reports that 70% of involuntary admissions were revoked within a month. This raises an unavoidable question: how can the Government justify maintaining a system that allows such prolonged delays when the evidence shows earlier reviews are both necessary and appropriate?
I know of, and have spoken with, people who were wrongly detained and whom the Minister has not engaged with, despite their best efforts to make submissions on this legislation to her, the health committee and the Department. The Minister has a responsibility to engage with disabled persons' organisations, DPOs, and I wonder why that has not occurred. The Leader alluded to this last week.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2025-12-09/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:26+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-09