Mental Health Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed) Seanad Éireann — 2026-01-20 ============================================================ Victor Boyhan (IND), Agricultural Panel I will go back to the amendment first. I am delighted that the Minister of State is at one with us on that. The only thing is about primary legislation. There is nothing precluding the Minister from excluding it from primary legislation. I know the Minister of State has talked about secondary legislation and all of that. I do not doubt her word. I take her word. She can take it from me. She has been around a long time and I think I will be around for some time. We will chase each other to chase it over the line in there. Can I just go back to the Bloomfield Hospital case because it hinges on the advocacy piece? I thank the Minister of State for putting her concerns and where she is on the record. At the very outset, I want to thank Shauna Bowers, The Irish Times ' health correspondent who broke this story in The Irish Times. I want to acknowledge that as no doubt, she will be tuning into here today. I want to talk about the issue of advocates. There are people in Bloomfield who sought people to give voice to their concerns. They could not get it. This illustrates the real importance of advocacy. As I said earlier on, this facility, Bloomfield, is regulated by the Mental Health Commission. Its most recent inspection of the facility, published in the September just gone, identified 94% compliance with the rules and regulations. We really have to be banging our head and asking how could it get a 94% compliance, as it has for the past two or three years. I know the Minister of State does not have the answers to that and I do not want to prejudice ongoing inquiries that the Minister of State may have initiated or asked other parties to initiate. It was more disturbing that the Society of Friends, the Quakers, owned this facility and within days, we heard it was up for sale. Within days, I understand some people in the private sector were looking at it. If we are looking for capacity, might I put out a call to the State and the Minister of State this morning that we might look at buying it ourselves? I might be the first to ask that but I am sure the Minister of State already has thought that. I know she will not be able to share that with me either, because it is price sensitive or it may not be the case and it may not be in the bigger plan. If this facility is full, has capacity and has the infrastructure in place, and we have a need, it makes sense that we should look at that or look at some synergy between the public and private sector or something. The reality is that at the end of it all, this is really disturbing. This is all on the public record, by the way, and published. The independent report commissioned senior management of the hospital. Okay. There were many allegations about patients being left in soiled clothing for unacceptable periods, slapped and threatened with injections. These are people suffering from mental health issues. These are the very people that I and my colleagues on this side of the House are talking about - vulnerable people - being threatened with injections. In some cases, they were threatened with food deprivation and punishments. A culture of an area of significant concerns was raised. People who worked there cried out and no one listened. There was not the protection. Earlier, I said I have a renewed confidence and faith in whistleblowers and the staff, right up to all levels of staff, direct or indirect, nursing or medical staff. The night we were speaking in here, this was happening to patients down the road. It is very frightening. There were many circumstances of concern. The report highlighted that as far back as 2003, there were concerns. I will not dwell on it too much because it is on the public record. Anyone can see it. I again thank Shauna Bowers for the enormous story and taking pen to paper. She was brave enough to investigate it, validate it and collaborate internally with people and families there. Those are the very issues we must seek to address. Back to the Minister of State and the advocate, I would like if she could consider this independent advocacy - it does not always have to be complaints. It can be suggestions and supports. It can be looser. I do not always like when people are always talking about complaints. There are positive things happening. There is positive feedback as well. The advocate has a role in all of that. Of course, particularly in the psycho-geriatric element of mental health, when people have developed acute neurological issues and may have Alzheimer's, dementia or other forms of degeneration, coupled with medical needs, they are very complex and they are really vulnerable. That is where the advocates really come in. The openness and transparency within these services also allows people to see, listen and take something out. This is the most fundamental part. I hear what the Minister of State is saying and she is committed. On that basis, I am happy to seek leave from the House for liberty to withdraw the amendment and to possibly re-enter it. I know we are going for one but I would genuinely welcome a sit-down with the Minister of State to tease this out. There would not be a big broad agenda, I assure the Minister, it would be a sit-down to see how we can really work together on this one. --- 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/2026-01-20/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:31+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-01-20