Mental Health Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed) Seanad Éireann — 2025-12-17 ============================================================ Victor Boyhan (IND), Agricultural Panel I thank the Minister of State for the early start this morning. We do not normally come in as early as this, so I thank her and her officials. I, too, wish her a good Christmas. We will not be dealing with the Bill again this week. We had originally planned to do so tomorrow. I put that on the record and thank the Minister of State's officials. It is very intense work because every "t" needs to be crossed and every "i" dotted. I accept that. What the Minister of State read into the record - and, of course, we will see the report later today - brings greater clarity. One of the biggest issues, as I said earlier, is the concern about the 16- and 17-year-olds. As the Minister of State knows from her office and from correspondence received and as we know from emails and correspondence we have received, this matter has very much exercised the minds of people, and rightly so. There are vulnerable people in every cohort. In this particular cohort, if we were to talk to people involved in advocating for youth workers, the homeless or Tusla - I am going to come back to that organisation in a moment - there are huge concerns about vulnerable people and what is in their best interests. As the Minister of State has confirmed again this morning, the term "due weight" is being taken out. That is important. When there is a weighting system, it is about which way the scales tip. It depends on whether a parent, a guardian or Tusla is involved. I have been highly critical of Tusla. I know enough about it, as does the Minister of State. There has been a lot of concern about people in the care of Tusla. The agency has got it wrong many times, but it has also got it right many times. I am not here to knock it. Tusla deals with vulnerable people, as does our Prison Service. Many of these people are very challenging. The best of us are challenging, but some people who have added complexities and difficulties are exceptionally challenging. The establishment does not like people who challenge it. It is too easy to write people off and say that they have mental health issues or complications and that we are washing our hands of them. We know people have gone from this State into other jurisdictions to be cared for. That is just the reality of that situation. I do not want to open all that up. I will just say that people are more vulnerable if they are sent out of the State to be cared for. This does not happen too often, but it does happen. There are reasons for it. I am not sure if it is a good reason in terms of a lack of facilities within our services, but hopefully that will change. That is important. There is the issue regarding guardianship and the level of commitment of a guardian. Not all guardians are willing ones. Circumstances put people into these roles. It could be a member of an extended family who becomes a guardian. People have legal responsibilities if they take guardianship on. I welcome that the Minister of State spoke about the guiding principles and indicated that they are going to be worked out at some point. I also welcome her comments on safeguards, which are important, and codes of practice. That will obviously be an evolving process once the Bill is commenced. That is welcome. As we are not going to get through more than two or three sections today, it would be helpful to have a note on that. Again, it will mostly be on the record and we can read it again. That is the sort of clarity people are looking for. The Children’s Rights Alliance and different advocate groups have already been in touch with us. If I was to read out all the emails I have received since we met last week, we would be here all day. I am not sure if they are all correct and I would not read them into the record. People have different agendas, backgrounds and experiences, which is why they come from different positions. We have to see through many lenses. That is the challenge for us all. I welcome the clarity the Minister of State has brought to this. It is helpful and I am happy to support amendment No. 37. --- 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