Mental Health Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages
Seanad Éireann — 2026-04-16
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Mary Butler (FF), Waterford

I am still standing. I thank everyone again for the way in which the amendment has been presented. We have debated this so many times. As the Senators all know, this is something I feel extremely strongly about. Have any of the Senators ever spoken to a parent whose child was admitted to an adult unit overnight for their own safety or to save their lives? I have 100% done so.
When I was here in January, I did not have all of last year's figures. Last year, there were a total of five child admissions to adult units across the calendar year and the total number of days was six.
Four children stayed for one night and one child stayed for two nights. I worry that if we set a limit of 72 hours, it will make it the norm. If we set a limit by my saying in legislation that it is okay for a child to be admitted if there is nowhere else for them to go, I would actually be legislating to put a child there. I want to get to a place where no child or young person is put there. The progress has been massive, and I thank all the clinicians who work in real time in the middle of the night, dealing with a crisis at 3 o'clock in the morning when a young person may be self-harming or suicidal. It may not be safe to move a young person from Donegal in the middle of a storm, which was one case I dealt with. Let us put ourselves in the position of the parents. Every one of the four children who stayed for one night had the support of their parent and the Mental Health Commission was informed. I cannot be clearer about this. Why would we tie the hands of a clinician trying to save a young person's life? I have never felt stronger about anything in my life. There may come a Minister of State after me who will decide they do not agree, but I will never move on this. It could be a 17-year-old man who is psychotic at the time and is a risk to himself and others, and the only solution that night might be for him to be in an adult psychiatric ward in a room on his own with one-to-one support for the entire night. If I am doing wrong by doing that, I will live with it until I go to my grave. That is how strongly I feel.

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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