Mental Health Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed)
Seanad Éireann — 2025-12-09
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Mary Butler (FF), Waterford

"Mental illness" is not used in legislation in similar jurisdictions or by international bodies such as the UN. "Mental illness" is not a better term to use in the legislation. There needs to be a legal distinction between the term we use for the condition that can deprive someone of his or her liberty and the term we use that applies to the conditions that may apply to a wide range of people accessing mental health treatment on a voluntary basis, particularly in the community.
Despite what has been said, there is no one agreed term internationally regarding severe and enduring conditions. We have done a lot of work looking into that. Even within the UN, there is no one agreed term believe it or not. While the UNCRPD uses the term "psychosocial disabilities", the UN also uses the term "mental disorder". For example, on the UN webpage entitled "Mental Health and Wellbeing", the term "disorder" is used 17 times with regard to mental disorders, anxiety disorders and eating disorders. "Mental disorder" is a commonly used term in legislation in other similar jurisdictions such as the UK and New Zealand as well as in Acts in Scotland and Northern Ireland. It would be a very different conversation if the Bill proposed to retain a term that is not used anywhere else to the exclusion of a widely agreed term but this is not the case. "Mental disorder" is an appropriate and widely term in other jurisdictions and used by the UN.
If there comes a time when the term "mental disorder" is replaced with a different term internationally, the legislation can be amended to reflect. Given the time we have looked into, discussed and debated this and tried to come up with a different term, it best suits the Bill. I was in here last week when the situation relating to eating disorders was raised. Nobody had any problem with an eating disorder being called an eating disorder. We talk about ADHD where the term "disorder" is used. We talk about respiratory disorders. We certainly have to differentiate between somebody with emotional distress or low levels of anxiety and somebody who is detained involuntarily with a mental disorder. For that reason, I am not in a position to accept the amendments.

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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