Mental Health Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed)
Seanad Éireann — 2026-01-22
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Nicole Ryan (SF), Administrative Panel

I move amendment No. 151:
In page 67, line 37, after “applied” to insert “in accordance with section 57 and”.
I will speak to both amendments because they are in the same section. Amendment Nos. 151 and 152 deal with who is protected by the safeguards of this legislation and how clearly those safeguards are anchored into law. While they might look like minor drafting changes on paper, in mental health law, language is never minor. Language determines who is covered and protected and whether safeguards apply in practice or theory only.
Amendment No. 151 applies safeguards in accordance with section 57. It inserts the words "in accordance with section 57" in section 53. Section 57 is the section that governs the use of pharmacological and chemical restraint. It sets out the conditions, authorisations and regulatory framework for such restraints to be used. By explicitly linking section 53 to section 57, this amendment ensures that restraints cannot be applied informally or through local customs, nor can they be normalised as a routine practice. It provides that all use of restraints will be subject to the statutory safeguards, oversights and regulation set out elsewhere in the Bill. We cannot have a situation where one part of the Bill sets out strict safeguards while another part allows actions to occur without being clearly tethered to those safeguards. The amendment closes this gap. It ensures that when restraint is applied, it is done lawfully, transparently and subject to regulation rather than by habit, convenience or institutional culture.
Amendment No. 152 replaces the phrase "in the care of" with the words "present in". Again, it looks like a technical amendment but it is quite fundamental. The phrase "in the care of" implies a formal, legal or clinical relationship. In real life, however, people can be waiting for admission or assessments. They can be transferred between units, held temporarily or attending involuntarily. In all of those situations, a person may be physically present in a registered centre but not yet formally in the care of the service. This amendment ensures that safeguard applies to every person present in a registered centre rather than those who have already been formally admitted or assigned to a care team.
These amendments do three things. They ensure that restraint is always governed by the statutory safeguards; protections apply to everyone physically present in the centre; and no one falls into a legal grey zone. There is no room for ambiguity in this Bill when we are dealing with deprivation of liberty, coercion, interventions and highly vulnerable people. If a person is present in a mental health centre, then they deserve the full protection of the law. If a restraint is applied, it must be applied strictly in accordance with the regulation.

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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