Mental Health Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed)
Seanad Éireann — 2025-12-09
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Lynn Ruane (IND), University of Dublin

I have sympathy on the 14-day review versus 21 days depending on the person's circumstances. We are debating 14 days versus 21 days, but what is standing out more than anything in the debate is potentially the three-month period being the problem. Was there any discussion on reducing the three-month wait? If somebody goes in front of a board and is not deemed to be able to fully engage, or his or her mental health order is extended, should the three-month wait be reduced? Senator Black made the point about when somebody is released and his or her care order is revoked before the mental health review board has to meet. That is extremely important for the reason she outlined but also for the inverse of that. I am referring to people who were released before the mental health review board met. One such young girl had experience of homelessness. Her father was in here last year and met me and a number of other people. I may have tabled a Commencement matter on the issue at the time. This young woman was held involuntarily and then a different consultant came in two or three days later and supposedly made a comment about the fact that she was homeless and that actually anything they did there would be undone because she would be returning to the streets. The consultant removed her involuntary care order before a review board met. She left the hospital and killed herself off a building in the inner city.
There are also the other reasons a mental health review board should still meet even if someone's involuntary care order is revoked. Have there been any discussions about this? In some cases, people need to be held responsible for really bad decisions about people's care when reasons are factored in that should not be. In this girl's case, it was factored in that she was homeless and it was assumed that she would be back in again and again because she would not be able to continue her care, for whatever reason. Have there been any conversations on reducing the three-month timeframe, rather than looking at 14 to 21 days? If it was at 14 days and there was a review within four weeks from that period would that not be better? Has there been any discussion of situations where people's voluntary care orders were revoked and in some cases they went on to take their own lives because of decisions made by consultants?

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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