Mental Health Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed)
Seanad Éireann — 2026-01-28
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Nicole Ryan (SF), Administrative Panel

I move amendment No. 313:
In page 116, line 14, to delete “a consultant psychiatrist” and substitute “a qualified mental health professional”.
This amendment proposes a simple but important change, namely, to replace the phrase "a consultant psychiatrist" with "a qualified mental health professional". It is not about downgrading standards but reflecting the modern clinical practice of multidisciplinary care and the reality of the workforce shortages. We all know consultant psychiatrists are in critically short supply. Across the State, there are long-standing vacancies. Posts cannot be filled and services are operating without permanent consultants and with an over-reliance on agency staff. That creates two serious problems, bottlenecks in care and delays in access to service for patients. If the law says that only a consultant psychiatrist can carry out a practical function, when no consultant is available, the function simply cannot happen no matter how urgent the clinical need is.
Modern mental health services are not consultant-led in isolation. Mental healthcare is delivered under multidisciplinary teams. As the Minister of State will be aware, there are psychologists, psychiatric nurses, social care professionals, occupational therapists, psychotherapists and many other specialist clinicians. These professionals are highly trained and highly regulated and already carry out many of the assessments, interventions and care planning functions across the system. This amendment recognises that reality. It allows appropriately qualified mental health professionals to exercise statutory functions within their scope of practice rather than creating artificial legal barriers that slow down care. It ensures that where qualified professionals are competent to perform a function, they are not prevented from doing so by outdated or overly rigid legislative drafting. The standards remain high, but access becomes faster. Internationally, mental health legislation is moving away from narrow, doctor-only led models towards multidisciplinary, team-based care.

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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