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

I will be brief because I have mentioned this before. Senator Black has touched on it there again. We should have an independent commission, an independent process and a complaints procedure. We all know what happened in Bloomfield Hospital. I give a call-out to Shauna Bowers, the health correspondent in The Irish Times , who covered this story extensively over the Christmas period on the litany of abuse that took place in the Bloomfield supposed care centre. It is all documented. We have discussed it here with the Minister of State in every session since Christmas. The commission gave the hospital a 94% clearance rating three times in a row. There is no dispute about that. It is shockingly scary what has happened there. We need this independent complaints procedure. There were whistleblowers in there who told the story and who engaged with the journalists, particularly Shauna Bowers. That is how that story evolved but she then went on to investigate it further. There is no dispute about what happened there. I think there is to be an investigation; I will keep pressing for it. I was considering drafting some parliamentary questions but I will not bother because I feel I can now talk to the Minister of State directly. Some people will give the usual response to questions. If it is a HSE thing, they will send it out. One of the shames now when we look at our Dáil reporting is that we see comments such as "the HSE will write to you directly". This cuts out and short-changes the public who want to look in and see the responses. I have written to a few TDs today asking them to post their responses when they get them and to engage. It is important that we have oversight and that we look in. I do not like to see a situation evolve in any parliamentary process where suddenly it is all watered down and Ministers are feeling they have to tell us, from all these quangos we have around the country now, that they will write to us directly. It bypasses the parliamentary scrutiny and questioning. However, that is another day's work.
Based on Bloomfield Hospital alone, there is a very strong case for an independent complaints process so that the workers at all levels within the provision of the service and the people who have had direct experience will have the confidence externally of the other processes. It is not to have to invalidate them. Any concern has to be validated. There is a strong case for it. I am pleasantly surprised this amendment got in. I would have thought it might have been suggested it would incur a cost to the State. I have been told I could not have a report because it is a cost on the State and I stand up in here saying we are all in here on the payroll and we are all a cost to the State. It seems to be different arrangements for different days. I will leave it at that.

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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