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

That is great. It is important to note, however, that we still send people outside the State in exceptional or very challenging circumstances. That is not an ideal situation and we need to monitor it. That has to be a priority for us. We talk about children’s advocacy, children’s rights and the UN convention. This is an issue of concern to the advocacy groups. It has to be an issue of concern to Tusla. It says it does not necessarily have the resources or the specialties to deal with it. This applies particularly to children who may have already been committed to some sort of care order or institutional care and even that placement becomes very difficult and the system cannot cope. That is a challenge, more so when the parents do not see themselves as a stakeholder or do not wish to be a stakeholder in that collaborative rehabilitation. We must always be conscious of that challenge and keep a keen eye on it. We need to constantly assess it. I drafted a parliamentary question for a Member of the Dáil to submit, which I think will be done in January. It seeks the costs involved every month for the last 12 months. While it is hard to so, somewhere along the line, we have to assess the outcomes, not in terms of value for money but in terms of the human experience and how it has graduated or assisted in the rehabilitation or support of the individual.

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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