Mental Health Bill 2024: From the Seanad
Dail Éireann — 2026-04-29
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Mary Butler (FF), Waterford

The amendments in this grouping relate to references to parents and, where relevant, the Child and Family Agency, throughout the Bill. Officials in my Department carried out extensive consultation with their counterparts in the Department of Children, Disability and Equality throughout the legislative process and I brought a number of amendments to the Seanad arising from this consultation. All the amendments in this grouping relate to references to parents and-or Tusla and their right to be informed about the care and treatment of their child under the Mental Health Act.
Amendment No. 275 introduces a new section to ensure that notification is made to Tusla by the HSE when children have their detention extended or when they are discharged from a mental health service. This amendment includes children who were the subject of care orders or other types of orders under the Child Care Act 1991 at the point of their admission to the mental health service, but whose Child Care Act orders have lapsed during their admission. This will ensure that all children formerly in the care of Tusla will be accounted for and that there will be open lines of communication between the HSE and Tusla.
We will discuss a number of different groupings today that relate to children and the alignment between the Mental Health Act and the Child Care Act. At every point during the development of these amendments, the Department of children was consulted to ensure that the rights of children who are in the care of Tusla will be fully vindicated. These amendments, and amendments in later groupings, will ensure that children in care can access inpatient mental health services on the same basis as any other child.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-04-29/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-21T01:01:08+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-29