Mental Health Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed)
Seanad Éireann — 2026-01-28
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Mary Butler (FF), Waterford

I will be brief as well because we have spent a lot of time discussing this issue. The reason I feel so strongly about this – it is not all down to me, because everything is a team effort – is that there are now practices in place whereby consultants, psychiatrists and multidisciplinary teams look at the situation and make a decision on that basis.
I do not see any reason for the numbers to increase, however. The reason is that there are more community supports than ever before; 95% of all those with an eating disorder are being treated in the community. My main worry, if we were to legislate for 72 hours, is that it means we are legislating for children to be admitted to an adult ward because that is the way it would have to be worded. I have discussed this with the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel. If we are going to say they will not be kept any longer than 72 hours, that is actually opening the door to say we are legislating to put children into an adult ward. That is the last thing I want to do. I want the practice to get to zero. There may always be individual cases. I have spoken of them, and I knew about a real case. There may always be a handful of those cases every year. To reiterate, in the case of a 17-year-old, it is always with the support of their families, and it is always an individual room with clinical supports for the duration of time.
I understand the point the Senator is making about when the initial transfer is being made, but where we have improved now is that we have capacity in the units across the country. Dr. Amir Niazi appeared before the Joint Committee on Health last week and spoke about eating disorders. He spoke about how there was 30% available capacity last year on average across our inpatient CAMHS units. Coupled with that, I secured the funding to reopen the beds that were closed in Cherry Orchard this year. I also secured the funding to start opening the new children's hospital beds with ten beds. That is an extra 21 beds. I really believe that unless if we had some kind of weather disaster that meant that somebody was not able to travel, I do not really see any reason. We have capacity now that we did not have previously, both in community and inpatient services. That is the reason. I understand where the Senator is coming from because she does not want to see anyone there for any length of time and neither do I. I do not want to see anyone there at all, the same as the Senator. If we legislate for it, however, we are actually opening that door to say that clinicians can put children into an adult ward, even if it is only for up to 72 hours. We are actually opening the door; I just want to keep it closed. I understand and appreciate the way the Senator has presented this.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-01-28/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:33+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-28