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

These amendments relate to chemical or pharmacological restraint and provide for the regulation of pharmacological restraint on adults and children. I asked officials in my Department to review this matter following a debate in the Dáil last year and requested that the Mental Health Commission carry out a rapid evidence review of pharmacological restraint in other jurisdictions. The amendments introduced in the Seanad are informed by this research by the commission. Pharmacological restraint involves the administration of medication to a person where the purpose of the medicine is only to control a person's behaviour or control access to his or her body. Pharmacological restraint does not include any administration of medication where the medication is for the benefit of the person's condition or treatment. I have heard narratives that this does not exist. However, I always listen to all voices, including lived experience, and I welcome the work that the Mental Health Commission did in carrying out a rapid evidence review of pharmacological restraint. I was happy to move that amendment.

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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