Mental Health Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed)
Seanad Éireann — 2025-12-17
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Mary Butler (FF), Waterford

In relation to private capacity, we have service level agreements with some of the private hospitals. I will give an example. When St. Loman's Hospital was closed in Wexford in 2011 additional capacity was bought at University Hospital Waterford for Wexford and Waterford patients. We have a service level agreement with St. Patrick's in Dublin. That would not be unusual. There are people who have been involuntarily detained in private facilities as well. We need to focus on a child who has been involuntarily detained. That will always be done through a court order. That will depend on what capacity is available. In the main, my understanding is the child would be placed in HSE facilities if the capacity was there.
Senator Boyhan said he has different figures but I have to work with the details I get. I get updated monthly on that. I get updated weekly about waiting lists in our inpatient facilities such as Merlin Park Hospital, St. Vincent's Hospital, Eist Linn and Linn Dara. We are speaking about a very small cohort of people.
To go back to Senator Stephenson's point, she said she did not say we should legislate. The point I made was that if we wrote into legislation that it is acceptable for a young person to be detained in an adult facility for their own safety, with the support of their parents and one-on-one supports for no longer than 72 hours, I think it would open a crack in the door. All I want is to see the number get to zero. I will very happy when that happens. At the same time, I think Senator Costello asked last week about what we would do if it was our child and we had a decision to make in real time, at 2 o'clock in the morning, with a consultant and clinical nurse specialist who are trying to support a young person who is at risk of suicide. What if the only option for the child is to be placed in an adult facility overnight, not in a ward with an adult or in a room with an adult but in a room on their own with an en suite bathroom - I use that word lightly because I have been in all of these facilities - and with one-on-one support overnight?
All the staff want to is keep that young person safe, well and monitored until they can be moved to the appropriate facility. Will we ever see a situation in Ireland where we will have inpatient beds in every town and village for people under 16 or under 18 who are unwell? No, we will not, and you do not see that in any country in the world. We have to be realistic. This is where I believe advocacy is overtaking care. I am trying to find the balance. If I have to debate this for another week, I will not change my mind.

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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