Mental Health Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages Seanad Éireann — 2026-04-16 ============================================================ Victor Boyhan (IND), Agricultural Panel The amendment is about a report on maximising autonomy. I propose that in advance of the five-year review of the Act, the Mental Health Commission shall prepare and submit a report reviewing strategies to maximise patient autonomy within the mental health services. This report shall be developed in consultation with a broad range of stakeholders, including but not limited to people with the lived experience, family members and advocates, mental health professionals, mental health advocacy organisations and relevant statutory bodies. The report shall include evidence-based recommendations aimed at strengthening rights-based, person-centred approaches to care and enhancing supported decision-making in line with the national and international human rights standards. There has been so much talk about human rights. I forensically examined the Minister of State's contributions in the Dáil and here, along with her track record of Government Information Service, GIS, press releases, etc., and I choose the words here carefully. I read and analysed all of these. I have gone through five subheadings. I talked about people with the lived experience and the Minister of State has talked extensively, eloquently and well about that herself. She empathised with people with the lived experience but I get the balance. It is also to look for professionals and expertise and she has made that point too so I have taken that on board. All of us have talked about family members and advocates. The Minister of State has praised the work of the family members. She told us about her own personal experiences and she has met families, advocates and told us she was impressed by their strength and contributions in light of all the difficulties they face. I agree with her and there is no difference in that regard. We talk about the mental health professionals and just a few minutes ago, she commented on how great the mental health professionals are and I fully agree. I fully agree about the SCA nurses and that is why I brought it up because I thought it would give her an opportunity to speak on it herself. I know she speaks on it all of the time but I wanted to give an opportunity here because that is a really good, positive story that we have six new SCAN teams across the country. The Minister of State confirmed that the five new SCAN teams for adult services would be located in Kerry, Limerick, Galway, Kildare and Dublin south city. That is only the beginning and she pointed that out too. She did not say that here but she told us here. That is all good news. All of this is music to my ears and compatible with what I am trying to do here. Then the Minister of State went on about the relevant statutory bodies and I understand that. I take that on board. I want to put on the record my own support for Tusla. It is a much maligned organisation but there are amazing workers who work in Tusla. They do really good work. --- 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