Mental Health Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages
Seanad Éireann — 2026-04-16
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Patricia Stephenson (SD), Labour Panel

I lend my support to what Senator Boyhan has said. It was very rousing. As a new Senator, it is always helpful to hear from Senators who have been around a little longer about the role of the House because sometimes what we do here feels a bit like a tick-box exercise and the legislative purpose that we hold can be lost in it all.
Both the UN Committee for the Rights of the Child and the UN Committee for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities have talked about the importance of putting those conventions inside legislation nationally. It was a 2023 report from the UN Committee for the Rights of the Child that urged Ireland to have these conventions specifically embedded in both our mental health and assisted decision-making legislation, and similarly with the Convention for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
What it does is it provides that anchor. It is not saying, "Yes, it is in the Bill", but maybe we have to work there because it is a process to meet all those metrics and indicators. However, it anchors future decision-making in that space on those really crucial conventions and ensures that anything that is against the convention is progressively removed. That is its aim. It also sends a message to other parts of the world that have maybe signed up to these conventions but have not implemented them fully, that we are leaders in this space and we will do so nationally and domestically in Ireland.
It is a reminder that these are obligations we should be upholding, whether that is around mental health legislation for children or mental health legislation for people with disabilities. I cannot fathom why we would not include them in the legislation. It might be that there is a sense we are not there now and are therefore non-compliant so we do not want to put it inside the legislation for this fear. However, it creates that anchor and pathway for us to progressively ensure we meet those standards.

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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