Mental Health Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed)
Seanad Éireann — 2025-12-17
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Patricia Stephenson (SD), Labour Panel

I know the Minister of State wants us to move on, and I will let other Opposition Members speak for themselves, but I was not suggesting we should legislate to hold children for 72 hours. The fact is the legislation does not commit to not holding children in adult units for any period of time. I was supporting the idea of having a compromise within the legislation. By no means was I suggesting we should provide in any legislation for holding children for any period of time in an adult unit. It is important to correct that.
Are public patients put in private services? Does the public system use private providers in these cases for children, or any patients, for mental health services? On the question around resourcing and the challenges with having resourcing for age appropriate units, if a child is in an adult unit, I assume they will be in a private room and taking additional staffing away from the adult unit. How can we balance those resources in a way that can facilitate? I know we have talked about the numbers and that there have only been two cases in 2025. Is there a question about rejigging resources because we would still be removing resources from another aspect of the service provision?

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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