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

These amendments as a whole relate to the sections concerning the involuntary admission of children and related matters, such as the application to the District Court to involuntarily admit a child, the application to the District Court to renew an application or seek the discharge of a child, the right to appeal a decision to the Circuit Court and the introduction of safeguards for children and young people, such as the right to receive information.
The amendments in this grouping are generally smaller in nature. Many of the amendments relate to inserting references to subsections that need to be updated or relate to changing terminology. We spoke about this previously, for example, changing references from the District Court to the Family District Court, which are the changes made in the Department of justice. Other amendments clarify how the involuntary admission process works, such as the requirement that consultant psychiatrists would deliver reports on examinations of children to the court within 72 hours. I will speak to some of the more substantive amendments in this grouping.
An important one, for example, is amendment No. 207, which inserts new subsections to ensure that any guardian ad litem appointed to the child is notified of a proposed application to the court in advance, which is really important, and copies of the proceedings are served on Tusla and any other person the court decides.
Amendment No. 234 replaces section 70 with new text to provide greater clarity on the process for discharging children who have been involuntarily admitted. The amended section 70 was drafted following consultation with the Department of children and better reflects the role of parents and Tusla, where involved, in the discharge of a child.
Amendment No. 238 sets out the process and timelines for sittings for the hearing of applications for involuntary detention for children at the Family District Court and the course to be taken where there is no judge or sitting available in the timelines set out, in that an application may be made to the next sitting of the District Court, or made ex parte if the judge is satisfied with its urgency. This will ensure that a court will always be available to hear applications for involuntary admissions. The default jurisdiction will be the Family District Court, but the regular District Court can hear such applications if it is not possible to schedule a family court sitting.
Amendment No. 243 inserts a new section, which provides for the bringing of a child to a mental health centre where an involuntary admission order has been made. In the first instance, the child should be brought by his or her parents or guardian. However, if the parents or guardian are unable to bring the child, the section provides a legal basis for the parents or guardian to request the assistance of the clinical director of the centre to provide assistance.
I wish to reassure everybody here today and everybody watching that all of these amendments were recommended by the Department of children to ensure it will be as untraumatic as possible for any child who has to go to court or be involuntarily detained and to improve the experience of the children. For example, the parents or guardian would bring the child if he or she had to be involuntarily detained and different things like that. We had a lot of consultation with the Department of children to improve this part of the Bill. That is the reason I am bringing forward these amendments at this stage.

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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