Mental Health Bill 2024: From the Seanad Dail Éireann — 2026-04-29 ============================================================ Mary Butler (FF), Waterford We all share the same goal, namely to ensure this legislation will facilitate the putting in place of a more robust framework in which our mental health services will be delivered and regulated into the future. I thank my colleagues in government for their continued support. I particularly thank the Taoiseach for reappointing me to this role in order that I could complete the work on the Bill right to the end. I thank the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, for all her support and former Minister Stephen Donnelly, who was a huge champion for this legislation. I also thank my colleagues the Ministers of State, Deputies Murnane O'Connor and O'Donnell. I offer my appreciation to Ministers, Deputies Foley and O'Callaghan, and their officials for the extensive contributions by their Departments on different aspects of the Bill. Considering the significant legal and ethical considerations involved in the Bill, it was important to ensure that there was ongoing consultation with key stakeholders throughout the drafting process. In particular, there was extensive consultation with the Mental Health Commission, as the regulator of mental health services, and the HSE, as the main provider of mental health services in the State. I thank the Mental Health Commission for all its support. The Department consulted widely with other stakeholders and professional representative groups such as the Irish College of Psychiatrists, the Psychological Society of Ireland, the Ombudsman for Children, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, Mental Health Reform and its various member organisations, other Departments and State agencies such as An Garda Síochána. I wish to take this opportunity to express my heartfelt gratitude to all the people with lived experience of mental health services - those living the experience and their loved ones - for taking the time to engage with the Department at different points when the Bill was being drafted. I received a lot of correspondence from many different perspectives, and every view was considered and debated at length. The wide-ranging and extensive consultation with stakeholders from all sectors and the comprehensive review of the existing Act have delivered a new legal framework that will absolutely deliver on its aims. I thank the officials in the mental health unit for their tremendous work in developing and progressing the Bill over the past number of years. I thank James Kelly, Lorraine Doyle, Siobhán Hargis, Philip Dodd, deputy chief medical officer, my advisers, Ian Power and Páraic Gallagher, and my private secretary, Amy Brennan, for all their hard work, advice and support throughout this process. I am extremely grateful to colleagues in the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel, the Office of the Attorney General and the Bills Office. I thank them for all their work. Getting here today would not have been possible without their valuable expertise, support and input. I also thank the Ceann Comhairle and Leas-Cheann Comhairle for powering through the amendments today. This Bill will make a profound difference to the lives of tens of thousands of people each year, whether through in-patient care, community residences or community services. It has been a significant journey. I am proud to have brought the Mental Health Act 2026, as it will be known, through all Stages to its conclusion. --- 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