Mental Health Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed)
Seanad Éireann — 2025-12-09
============================================================

Patricia Stephenson (SD), Labour Panel

My concern is that the reply the Minister of State gave regarding the 14 and 21 days is based on current provision in the health service. That is what I understood from what she said about all of the different requirements regarding assessments. What I heard is that doctors would not be able to deal with a 14-day review as opposed to a 21-day review in light of the current staffing situation. That does not sound very human rights-focused. It sounds like it is based on demands within the system. Perhaps the Minister of State could clarify that because she obviously feels that is not what she said, although that is what I heard.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

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