Mental Health Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed)
Seanad Éireann — 2026-01-22
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Mary Butler (FF), Waterford

I cannot support amendment No. 121. Looking at the available data from the Mental Health Commission, over 50% of admission orders will be vacated before the hearing of the first Mental Health Tribunal. The journey of every person who is admitted to an approved centre, whether voluntarily or involuntarily detained, is different and their recovery is different. Accepting this amendment would lead to a situation where an application to the Circuit Court would be made on behalf of every involuntarily admitted person, even in cases where the person is expected to recover within a very short amount of time. Based on current involuntary admission figures and the data available from the Mental Health Commission, this would lead to almost 2,500 applications to the Circuit Court per year at least, with the majority of these being withdrawn within 21 days. This works out as almost 50 applications to the Circuit Court every week. Over half of these applications would need to be withdrawn within 21 days.
Looking at the discharge statistics from the national psychiatric inpatient reporting system for 2024, 29% of all adult discharges occur within the first week. There would be no reason to have to flag this to the Circuit Court. A further 18% are discharged within one or two weeks, a further 20% are discharged within two-to-four weeks and then a further 27% are discharged between one-to-three months. This means that only 6% of all adult admissions last beyond three months.
This would be a serious waste of resources, including legal fees and the administrative burden, but also the burden on the HSE, the clinicians and those whose job is to provide the supports to support people to recover. The time limits set out in the Bill strike a balance to ensure that people who are expected to be admitted only for a short amount of time, or who are expected to regain sufficient decision-making capacity, do not need to be referred to the Circuit Court.
We need to ensure that people who are expected to lack capacity in the medium-to-long term can access decision supports via the Circuit Court. If this amendment is accepted, the court will be flooded with almost 50 applications a week. The vast majority of these applications will be withdrawn, but that all takes time and paperwork and the time that it would take would reduce access to the Circuit Court for those people lacking capacity in the medium-to-long term who need to get in there. For that reason, it does not make sense.
I will also speak to amendment No. 122 because they are grouped together. It is a technical amendment to insert a reference to the "registered proprietor" in section 48, to replace the current reference to the "responsible consultant psychiatrist", as the registered proprietor will be responsible for the making of an application to the court under section 49 for administration of treatment following admission.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-01-22/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:32+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-22