Mental Health Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed)
Seanad Éireann — 2026-01-28
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Victor Boyhan (IND), Agricultural Panel

I share some concerns. The point Senator Ryan made on clarity is a good point in relation to abroad. I do not think this is anecdotal but there are concerns. I was going to raise this later. There will be another relevant section later on but I will talk about it now and I may talk about it again. Can we categorically say that nobody, be they children or adults, is involuntarily or cared for outside the State in terms of mental health? I do not know what the statistics or the arrangements are. We do know in the past that a number of children, through Tusla or previously the HSE, were transferred to Scotland and places under special care orders for what was termed specialist care. The Senator has triggered that point there.
There is a concern, particularly in the area of mental health, that people would possible be transferred outside the jurisdiction of the State. I do know not if the Minister of State has statistics, detail or anecdotal stuff on that. It is an area of concern because they are now in another jurisdiction and that has knock-on effects. We talked about unintended consequences. We are certainly leaving ourselves open for unintended consequences if that was to happen. I do not have any hard evidence on it. There are suggestions that this has happened, may happen or there has been the threat of it happening. That in itself is not satisfactory. The Minister of State might share with us. I thank the Senator for raising that particular issue of concern.

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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