Mental Health Bill 2024: From the Seanad Dail Éireann — 2026-04-29 ============================================================ Mary Butler (FF), Waterford These amendments relate to transitional provisions, so we are getting to the business part of the Bill. These are the sections of a Bill that allow for the transition from an existing Act to a new Act that will replace it. In this case, the existing Act is the Mental Health Act 2001 and the new Act is the Mental Health Act 2026. For example, if the new 2026 Act is commenced on 1 January 2028 - I use that to explain it - there will be a short period of time where the 2001 Act will need to continue in operation. In order to have both the 2001 Act and the 2026 Act operating at the same time, we need transitional provisions. The transitional provisions allow for a 28-day period after the commencement of the 2026 Act in which all people detained under the 2001 Act must be re-examined by a consultant psychiatrist and either discharged or admitted under the new Act. It is common practice to include transitional provisions in legislation. Transitional provisions are timebound and in the case of this Act, they will expire and no longer be in effect after 28 days. These transitional provisions have been the subject of extensive consultation with the Mental Health Commission, as the regulator of mental health services, and the HSE, as the service provider of public mental health services. Furthermore, officials in my Department consulted extensively with the Attorney General's office to ensure that the transitional provisions are legally robust. There are 19 sections in the new Part being introduced on transitional provisions, spread across two Chapters. At any one time there are approximately 250 persons within a public-approved centre, so it is really important we put these transitional provisions in place to make sure that when the transition happens, there is a timeframe available to it. My understanding is that every single person will have to be reassessed by a psychiatrist and that in some cases, people who were involuntarily detained may no longer fit the criteria to be detained involuntarily and their status will change. The period of 28 days, which is the maximum period, has to be allowed in order for that to happen. --- 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/dail/2026-04-29/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-09-21T01:01:08+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-04-29