I move: Tuesday's business shall be: - International Protection Bill 2026 (Second Stage, resumed) (to adjourn on conclusion of the second speaking round, not to exceed 3 hours and 24 minutes) Tuesday's private members' business shall be the Second Stage of the Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences (Amendment) Bill 2026, selected by Sinn Féin. Wednesday's business shall be:- - Statements on the Report of Operation Kenova (not to exceed 2 hours and 25 minutes) - Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024 (Ame…

I thank the Deputies for their suggestions. We will have the debate on the International Protection Bill 2026 this afternoon for several hours. Tomorrow, we will have statements on Operation Kenova. We will have the residential tenancies Bill before the House tomorrow for five hours. On Thursday, we will again have the International Protection Bill. We can discuss different statements at the Business Committee meeting on Thursday, which we do every week. The Order of Business stands. I am not accepting the suggesti…

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue and for his constant advocacy on in respect of those who have mental health challenges, disorders and illnesses. As he knows, budget 2026 focused on the provision of a crisis resolution response, especially for those who attend acute hospitals out of hours. I was able to secure the funding, and I want to thank the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, for her work with me on this, for our nine model 4 hospitals and one model 3 hospital, so there are ten hospitals in …

It is not opposed.

I move: Wednesday's business shall be: - Motion re Ministerial Rota for Parliamentary Questions (without debate and any division claimed to be taken immediately) - Motion re Ninth Report of the Standing Committee of Selection (without debate and any division claimed to be taken immediately) - Residential Tenancies (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2026 (Second Stage) (to adjourn after 3 hours and 24 minutes) Wednesday's private members' business shall be the Motion re Bord Bia, selected by Sinn Féin. Thursday's busin…

I thank the Ceann Comhairle. I have noted the requests for a debate on flooding and on housing. There will be five hours of housing debate on Second Stage of the Residential Tenancies (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2026 this week: 204 minutes today and a further 102 minutes tomorrow. It is a two-day sitting. This legislation is really important. We will facilitate discussion on Thursday around further debates. At the moment I am not in position to accept an amendment under Standing Order 35(3). The Order of Busine…

It is not opposed.

It is not opposed.

I move: That, notwithstanding anything in the Order of the Dáil of 5th February, 2025, setting out the rota in which Questions to members of the Government are to be asked, Questions for oral answer, following those set down to the Minister for Defence, shall be set down to Ministers in the following temporary sequence: Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment Minister for Children, Disability and Equality Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment whereupon the sequence established by the Order of 5th…

I thank the Acting Chairperson for being in the Chair today. I understand the Senator's amendments have been ruled out of order but, as he said, that decision was not made by me or my officials. I received these amendments earlier this week and asked my officials to correspond with the Mental Health Commission for its view on them. While the Bill as presented states that the inspector will inspect every inpatient service at least once within the registration period, I understand the commission plans to inspect each…

Yes, I am 100% supportive.

I will not come back on Report Stage with this. I am not going to pretend I will. However, I am fully supportive of the sentiment and will certainly look at it in secondary legislation. I think it is important that there is clarity here. Some centres do not get three-year registrations. Some get two years and some get one year - it depends - but I think it is important that every centre is visited in every calendar year.

Not now.

Nor on the next Stage, no.

I will be brief. It is not that I disagree. I agree with the Senator’s sentiment but I cannot support amendment No. 319 as it is unnecessary. Community mental health services are already defined in section 2 of the Bill and so accepting this amendment would cause issues of duplication. I have no problem at all with the thrust of what the Senator said but it would be duplication as it is already there. I thank her for that and for her explanation.

Most of the amendments in this grouping relate to Government amendments and are being introduced to correct section references or typographical errors. For example, amendment No. 320 changes the section reference from section 128 to section 152, as section 152 is the appropriate section for conditions to be attached under. A lot of tidying up is going on in the Bill now because we have had so many amendments. Amendment No. 325 is necessary following amendments to Part 3, Chapter 3 to reflect the role of the registe…

I understand exactly where the Senator is coming from. I want to acknowledge that lady who shared her lived experience and spoke about her 23 years in services and the challenges she had. I speak to a lot of people, too, who have had good experiences, and the Senator has acknowledged that, but we have come a long way over 23 years when we think of the Bill in 2001, which the current Taoiseach brought through the Houses. We have spoken about it many times and here I am now in 2026 with a Bill that started its journe…

We hope the President will sign the Bill over the Easter period. That is our plan and timeline at the moment. They will move immediately then. For all the secondary legislation we are looking at a period of between 12 and 18 months. Other issues can run in parallel to that. Some of them will be statutory instruments that I will simply sign and that will not have to come before the Houses. They will be laid before the Houses but they will not have to be discussed in the Houses. As the Senators are aware, I am open t…

They are all very welcome. I am concerned that the Senator's last contribution might give the wrong impression to people over breaches that have been found by HIQA or the Mental Health Commission. I have been Minister of State with responsibility for mental health and older people since 2020. Unfortunately, my Wednesday nights when we are waiting to vote are normally spent reading HIQA and Mental Health Commission reports. I read them every week. They are flagged to me all the time. When non-compliance is identifie…

I thank the Senator for her amendments. I did not support amendment No. 337 when it was proposed in the Dáil and I am not minded to support it today. When I came into my role as Minister of State with responsibility for mental health services in July 2020, the first document I was handed was Sharing the Vision, which became my bible. It is a mental health policy that puts the service user first and centre. It is cross-departmental, which is really important because mental health does not only sit within the Departm…