Mental Health Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed)
Seanad Éireann — 2025-12-17
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Victor Boyhan (IND), Agricultural Panel

The Minister of State spoke about young people. Another group who are important, and this is also part of her brief, is the elderly. There are a lot of people in the psychogeriatric category. From speaking to people in psychiatric services in Dublin, I know in some cases it is difficult to get engagement with any member of the family. That is the reality. Family members come in, the patient is deposited and no one seems to get back. This is a challenge for the services. It does not happen too often but it does happen. It is important we do not lose sight of that. I know the Minister of State has not lost sight of it. She is fiercely committed to this part of her brief but there are a lot of people in care without capacity or it is presumed they do not have capacity. A lot of elderly people have capacity. A relative of mine is 99 years old and is still going strong, with loads of capacity, so I am hopeful for myself. Let us not lose sight of the elderly in the psychogeriatric area because they are also important in terms of this legislation.

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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