Mental Health Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed)
Seanad Éireann — 2025-12-17
============================================================

Mary Butler (FF), Waterford

I agree with the Senator wholeheartedly. That why I focused on supporting older people in budget 2026. We are very lucky in Ireland to have one of the highest life expectancies in the European Union. Women here live a little longer than men. Notwithstanding what the Senator said just now, the facts bear that out. We have very high longevity, thank God. We have invested greatly in the last five years. When I was Minister of State with responsibility for older people, we invested in home care, day care, meals on wheels and supporting older people to live their best lives for as long as possible in their own home with the correct wraparound supports. The Senator’s point is really important because we have an ageing population and we are seeing more presentations with older people in relation to psychiatry of later life. That is why we have funded additionality in budget 2026.
The Senator mentioned sending young people abroad for treatment. When an issue was raised here last week involving an eating disorder and a specific case, I said we did not have to send any child abroad, predominantly to the UK, in relation to eating disorders. We have not done that. I reassure everybody in the House when that particular case was mentioned last week, I met the parents of the child yesterday.

---

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