Mental Health Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages
Seanad Éireann — 2026-04-16
============================================================

Victor Boyhan (IND), Agricultural Panel

I move amendment No. 43:
In page 29, between lines 20 and 21, to insert the following:
“ Capacity assessment and safeguards for treatment without consent
14. (1) A person cannot be given treatment without their consent unless a formal capacity assessment has been carried out and they have been found to lack capacity to consent to that specific treatment, in line with the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015.
(2) An exception to subsection (1) will only apply in emergency circumstances where such treatment is—
(a) immediately needed to protect the life of the person or someone else, or
(b) needed to prevent an immediate and serious threat to the health of the person or someone else,
and no safe and effective alternative is available.
(3) The Mental Health Commission will set up independent auditing and review procedures for all cases where treatment is given without consent before a capacity assessment is completed. The review must look at—
(a) whether time limits were followed,
(b) whether the reasons for treatment were properly recorded,
(c) whether independent advocacy was involved where relevant, and
(d) what steps were taken to support the person’s participation.”.

---

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