I want to make a brief comment on section 92 as a whole. My amendment also was ruled out of order because of a potential charge on the State. I find that any amendment which explicitly refers to a statutory right to advocacy could be ruled out of order will be a very tough pill to swallow for a lot of the advocates, patients and service users. With respect to Deputy Quaide, amendment No. 204 lays out very clearly what could be a very effective system for those who want and ask for a statutory right to advocacy. I c…

Amendment No. 206 seeks to require a formal code of practice for assessments and care planning, ensuring all service users receive a consistent rights-based standard of care in all services. Sinn Féin seeks clear binding guidance on any assessments carried out, including capacity and care planning, to help to protect individuals' rights and ensure ethical accountable decision-making. We seek to mandate collaborative care plans. The amendment reinforces recovery-oriented practice and ensures that individuals are par…

I thank the Minister of State for her comprehensive response. She should absolutely go to every single CAMHS team to find out what the best practice is and have it replicated around the country. This should be standard procedure. However, for those 763 kids who are waiting more than a year for a CAMHS appointment, that is not what their parents or guardians want to hear. They want to know when their child is going to be seen. I am deeply concerned because not only do we have this exploding CAMHS list on one hand, w…

I also have that in a reply to a parliamentary question that it does not keep a record of the children it does not see. To get a holistic and overarching view, those critical pieces of information and data must be collated. The tracking of the child's needs from when they present to when they accept or receive an offer of services is vital. What we will find is children who have been refused an appointment with CAMHS two or three times and who may end up waiting five or six years for any level of services. This is …

Brilliant.

The consistency.

I fully agree with the Minister of State's point about social media - I will not drag this on much longer, a Cheann Comhairle - particularly on the issue of eating disorders. This really strikes me. I remember when I was a teenager that the pro-ana or pro-anorexia movement was on MySpace and Bebo. This is not a new phenomenon but we have to get to the bottom of it because people are losing their lives to eating disorders. People are losing years of quality of life to eating disorders. At this stage, in 2025, the In…

I move amendment No. 206: In page 95, between lines 7 and 8, to insert the following: “(e) prepare and issue a code of practice for— (i) the conduct of psychosocial and capacity assessments, and (ii) the formulation and implementation of collaborative care plans, (f) review and update such codes of practice periodically, and (g) consult with service users, mental health professionals, and other stakeholders in the preparation of such codes.”.

I move amendment No. 211: In page 108, between lines 27 and 28, to insert the following: “(d) the progress towards and resource requirements for the extension of CAMHS towards a CYMHS for young people up to the age of 25, and the development of youth mental health clinical specialty, (e) the estimated number of whole-time equivalent clinicians to fully and safely staff public mental health services, and (f) the estimated level of new additional funding required to provide full and safe services with timely access t…

I move amendment No. 212: In page 109, between lines 5 and 6, to insert the following: “(3) The Commission shall within 12 months publish a report on the quality and independence of complaints processes and make recommendations for the strengthening of such processes.”.

Amendment No. 213 is fairly simple. It seeks to align the vision from previously published documents and promote distributed leadership across mental health services. Twice earlier this evening, I spoke on the wrong amendment at the wrong time, but this is the one I was speaking of. Throughout the document, there are references to consultant psychiatrists, whether that be child or adult consultant psychiatrists. There is also a reference to, at the assessment stage, a multidisciplinary approach. At the review stage…

I move amendment No. 228: In page 120, between lines 25 and 26, to insert the following: “ “community mental health services” means a mental health service which provides either urgent or routine care and treatment in a place other than a registered acute mental health centre or registered community mental health centre, including such services as crisis intervention teams;”.

I want to speak to amendment No. 234 and in general to this area of regulation. I speak of this and while there is not a direct link, there is absolute correlation. I am going to mention the RTÉ Investigates programme and the HIQA report, HIQA having been in with the health committee this morning. The reason I bring it up is that I do not ever want to see this State being in a position where the abuses we saw of older people in that RTÉ Investigates programme are perpetrated on those who are suffering with their me…

I move amendment No. 247: In page 135, line 30, to delete “consultant psychiatrist” and substitute “qualified mental health professional”. These amendments seek in similar ways to the previous amendment I spoke on to align the language of the Bill with policies previously published and to promote distributed leadership across mental health services. I believe the role should be competency-based and discipline non-specific, focusing on the relevant clinical and organisational expertise. As I said earlier, there shou…

I move amendment No. 248: In page 135, line 35, to delete “consultant psychiatrist” and substitute “qualified mental health professional”.

I move amendment No. 252: In page 145, between lines 12 and 13, to insert the following: “5-year sharing the vision funding and implementation strategy 177. (1) The Minister shall, within 12 months of the passage of this Act, publish a five-year funding and implementation strategy for mental health services. (2) The strategy referenced in subsection (1) shall be reviewed annually by the Mental Health Commission. (3) The strategy shall place an emphasis on shifting care to community-based services as and where appro…

I move amendment No. 264: In page 148, between lines 35 and 36, to insert the following: “Regulations concerning care plans 181. (1) The Executive shall keep and maintain records for the purpose of— (a) identifying persons to whom mental health services are being provided, (b) identifying those services and the persons providing the services pursuant to this Part, (c) specifying the aggregate needs identified by the services, (d) specifying the number of persons to whom services are not being provided or to whom th…

The Taoiseach said earlier utilities need certainty and so do people. Residents and businesses in Ballymahon and Ardagh in Longford have had enough. Last year, Ardagh's water supply failed 13 times and there were five more failures this year, excluding storm-related outages. It is a long-standing problem and is unacceptable. It is upending the daily lives of ordinary people, families, farmers and businesses. Despite countless complaints and reports to Uisce Éireann, answers are scarce and solutions are even scarcer…

There is not.

But there are none.