Mental Health Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages Seanad Éireann — 2026-04-16 ============================================================ Victor Boyhan (IND), Agricultural Panel As we speak, the association is having a conference in Cavan on CAMHS. Today many people will have heard the interview on "Morning Ireland". While this point is not teed up for this per se , I just wanted to put it in the context of advocacy. They asked if the Minister would consider a pause on the proposal to close the ten-bed child and adult mental health service at St. Vincent's in Fairview. This leads me to the issue of advocacy for CAMHS. I looked at the Government Information Service, GIS, and the Government announced two press items, on which I will speak in a second. I really want to talk about advocacy first. I will read them and I will reference the documents, a copy of which I have here. Two issues highlight advocacy. People contacted me from across Kerry. We know about the absolute scandal there with CAMHS. Would it have happened if we had advocates? I think we would have heard earlier of many of the problems if the whistleblowers had felt confident enough to say it. People did not feel they had advocacy. We are talking about advocacy here. It is important. My amendment states, "Within nine months of the passing of this Act the Minister shall lay before both Houses of the Oireachtas a report outlining how a right to independent advocacy can be guaranteed to all patients and their caregivers.” I mentioned Kerry CAMHS and the appalling situation that happened there with the administration of medication, which parents and those in loco parentis were not fully aware of. Without spending the whole hour talking about Kerry CAMHS, the Minister of State knows, and I know, what happened. There is an ongoing investigation and I do not want to pre-empt all of that, but all sides of the House agreed in the Dáil that there were major concerns about it. I just want to put that on the record. There is the statement from the Minister of State with responsibility for mental health on North Kerry CAMHS, compensation and further file review. That was the document I was referring to, dated 29 March 2026. I noted that and I just wanted to read into the record that this is the correspondence because the Minister of State may want to reference that later. If we had a fully functioning, open and transparent advocacy service, I do not believe we would have got this far in what was a shocking story. I have spoken to people involved. Then we move to the issue of the Bloomfield home. We were discussing these matters. I know because I have spoken to people who worked there. I want to pay particular acknowledgement and reference to Shauna Bowers from The Irish Times , who documented it. I wrote a letter to The Irish Times , which the Minister of State will have seen, and I think I was fair in my general assessment of it. I note the Minister of State is committed to following through and I look forward to her work on that. When it is appropriate and everything is completed, I hope we would have an opportunity to look at it again because I think there are learnings there. Again, I am trying to illustrate the point that shocking things happened in the Bloomfield nursing home. Staff at all levels in the organisation were unhappy. They felt there was not independent advocacy. Many of them did not feel they had confidence in any whistleblowing situation. It is a shocking indictment of what was going on there. These are people in care in our State, which is another issue. We have now heard from the Irish Independent that more than 240 children have been waiting 18 months or longer for mental health care, according to the latest CAMHS figures as released yesterday. The parents, the guardians of these children and the teachers of these children are having difficulties in advocating for these people within their charge. That is important. The Irish Independent has another article the title of which is "Left in limbo - suicidal teen left to wait four weeks in hospital with no child psychiatrist available." I am only reading these into the record because they are in the media and I am highlighting them, but I am trying to illustrate the point that we absolutely need advocacy. We know from our engagement with Mental Health Ireland, Mental Health Reform, the Children's Rights Alliance, the Ombudsman for Children and the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, to name just a few, that they too have focused on the issue of advocacy. Really all I am asking is that within nine months of the passing of this Act, the Minister shall lay before the Houses of the Oireachtas a report outlining how a right to independent advocacy can be guaranteed to all patients and their caregivers. When we consider the parliamentary questions in the Dáil, the Commencement matters in the Seanad and the debates here, I know the Minister of State is motivated to do the right thing. I want to be clear that I am not calling into question any of that. While I have quoted the articles, I want to stand over my own commentary here that my concern and what motivates me to propose this amendment is the real need and desire for independent advocacy. This is an important point. The Minister of State will be aware. She has seen this legislation through all Stages, to her credit. Being a parliamentarian, she knows more about this legislation than anybody, as do her officials. I do not believe that what I am suggesting is an unreasonable request. I do not want to feel that I am somehow arguing with the Minister of State or arguing with the system. If the Minister of State came back and said, "No, Senator Boyhan, you're wrong. We need 19 months or 18 months", I would take that, but I do believe we need to be ambitious about having a pathway to putting in a statutory advocacy system. I do not think it is that difficult or should be that difficult for the Department to support the Minister of State in agreeing to a very reasonable request. This is what people are looking for and what they are asking for. I am not sitting at home every day making up stuff. I have absolutely no doubt in the Minister of State's commitment. There may be things I am not aware of in terms of unintended consequences but it sends a very clear signal if we can unite on the need for an independent advocacy group. I am conscious that I am on my feet and can only speak once so I am going to use my time well and to the best of my ability. I have only gone through the Bloomfield situation. I understand there is additional reporting due over the weekend in relation to this particular premises and the goings-on there. As I said, I had a letter in The Irish Times and I got a lot of feedback on it. There are people who feel they cannot be open in their feedback, including people who have had family there. They are shocked by it. I will not gild the lily. I will just make it clear that there is a genuine and real need for an advocacy system. If there is a difficulty financially or with resources, or with getting people to bring that about, then the Minister of State might share that with us to help me have a greater understanding of the reason she would not support it. She indicated in her introduction to this group of amendments, before I spoke, that she would not be in a position to support it ,and I do not know if I have said anything that might make her reconsider it. I do not know, but I am also respectful of the fact she is the Minister of State who is driving this legislation. It is on her watch and she will be aware of other considerations that I would not necessarily be aware of. I mean it genuinely. My heart is in the right place and I think the Minister of State's heart is too, but there is a strong case to have this independent advocacy service, for which I make the case here today. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-04-16/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:49+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-04-16