Mental Health Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed) Seanad Éireann — 2025-12-17 ============================================================ Mary Butler (FF), Waterford I thank everyone or being here this morning. Amendment No. 37 replaces subsection (1)(c) in the section on guiding principles for children and proposes new paragraphs (c) and (d) to differentiate between the role of parents and guardians of children who are under 16 and those who are over 16. The amendment clarifies the guiding principles to ensure there is a presumption of capacity for children aged over 16. Where a child has capacity, the views of his or her parents are recorded. That is the important part. This amendment does not represent a change in policy. Rather, it is needed to clarify our policy position and ensure it is clear that children over 16 will be presumed to be able to make decisions about their care and treatment. Where a child lacks capacity, the Bill contains a number of safeguards to ensure that care and treatment can be administered by way of parental consent. These provisions will be discussed again later when we reach the groupings relating to Part 4. The Mental Health Commission will be the body responsible for publishing codes of practice relating to capacity assessments for children. Prior to publishing these codes, the commission will engage with stakeholders in order to consider every aspect of what capacity assessments for 16- and 17-year-olds should look like, to identify who can carry out these assessments and to identify what supports will be needed for young people and their parents throughout the process. This is an important element of what will happen when the Bill has been passed by both Houses. The Mental Health Commission will step in at that point and will be responsible for publishing codes of practice relating to capacity assessments for children. When any Bill is passed, there is an enactment stage. In the context of this Bill, it could be up to two years before all the different aspects are commenced. As a result, there will be plenty of time for engagement with the commission, stakeholders and parents in order to consider every aspect of what capacity assessments for 16- and 17-year-olds should look like, who can carry them out and what supports will be needed for young people and their parents throughout the process. I have been asked by some groups, especially those who have 16- and 17-year-olds who might have eating disorders, how it will be managed with the 16- and 17-year-olds having capacity to give consent. This is the area where we will be able to put the safeguards in place. The Mental Health Commission is the regulator of mental health services and is also responsible for the Decision Support Service, making it uniquely qualified to carry out this function. Extending the presumption of capacity to make decisions to 16- and 17-year-olds is broadly supported among stakeholders, including the Mental Health Commission. I will briefly set out the consent to treatment provisions for children in the Bill and the protections in place. For the voluntary admission of children under 16 years of age, the parent or guardian of the child is responsible for consenting to or refusing consent to treatment. For the voluntary admission of children over 16 years of age, the child consents to or refuses treatment with safeguards. For the admission of children over 16 who lack capacity it is by parental consent and the parent or guardian of the child is responsible for consenting to or refusing treatment for as long as the child continues to lack capacity. In the context of involuntary admissions, children who have capacity can consent to or refuse treatment. There are safeguards involved here. People can forget that there are such safeguards in circumstances where children pose a risk to themselves or others. If children lack capacity, the parent or guardian of the child can consent. We also must remember that there are instances where a parent does not give consent, despite the fact that a child might need treatment. Therefore, if the treatment is refused by the parents of a child, an application may be made to the High Court to seek a treatment order and the view of the court on whether such treatment is necessary, in the best interests of the child, to protect the health or life of the child from immediate and serious threat. I am confident that the safeguards are there to support those who are under and over 16 who either have or do not have capacity. Where a child is under 16 or over 16 and lacks capacity, the HSE can apply to the District Court to seek a treatment order in limited circumstances. As Senators know, we spoke about this last week when we discussed the changes that coming and that will apply in respect of the family courts when the Bill becomes law. An application for a treatment order can be sought from the District Court where the parent or guardian of a child cannot be found, if Tusla is not already involved, or where the parent or guardian of the child is given the opportunity to consent or refuse on behalf of the child and fails to do so. This is an issue that has been raised quite a lot by Senator Ruane. It is important to note that where an application is made to the High Court, treatment may be administered to a child for a short period that is limited to 72 hours. Again, this is if the child is at risk of causing harm to himself or herself or to others and the treatment is in his or her best interests. We simply cannot have a situation where children accessing inpatient mental health services are being treated unequally compared with those accessing physical health services arbitrarily. There may be cases where a young person aged 16 or 17 wants to access mental health services but cannot do so because his or her parents do not agree or are unwilling to consent on his or her behalf. This provision will ensure that young people can access inpatient mental health services. --- 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/2025-12-17/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:28+00:00 Sitting date: 2025-12-17