There are good working relationships 99% of the time between schools and the NCSE when it comes to opening ASD classes. The same can be said for this specific school in Athlone, which already has an ASD class in its Gaelscoil. However, the Minister of State is familiar with the 2022 document entitled "Autism Good Practice Guidance for Schools", which clearly states that autistic students who attend Irish-medium schools should be taught through Irish, as this is the language in their school environment. I also have …

Pride is about continuing solidarity with the members of the LGBT community we are lucky enough to call friends, privileged enough to call family and also the wider community. It is also about remembering how far that community has come, how we got here and why we, as a collective, must never take the progress made for granted. The LGBT+ community has in the past been a painful contradiction, with warmth and acceptance from that community and their families but silence and cruelty from the State. The latter meant t…

While the establishment of the long-overdue commission of investigation cannot but be welcomed, I will not, in good conscience, applaud a process that has taken far too long to come into being. I think today particularly of the older survivors I have met and engaged with. They expressed to me how they felt through the years that the State was waiting for them to die, hoping time would erase their voices. The impact of the actions of the perpetrators did not end when the abuse ended. The impact has caused innocent s…

I move amendment No. 2: In page 16, to delete lines 32 to 35 and substitute the following: “ “mental health difficulty” and/or “psychosocial disability” mean, in relation to a person, any mental disorder, illness or disability, whether of a continuous or intermittent nature, which affects the person’s thinking, perception, emotion, or mood and impairs the mental function of the person;”. We had this debate at length on Committee Stage but it is important and I want to come back to it. Words matter. How people feel …

I move amendment No. 9: In page 21, line 9, after “Act” to insert “and shall carry out an interim review after 2.5 years”. This is an area that has me very concerned. While five years is some progress, it is not enough. The Government has the opportunity here to put some very real and substantial oversight into the Bill by accepting the Sinn Féin amendment which proposes the carrying out of an interim review after two and a half years. Five years is too long; it needs to be much quicker than that. Without the two-a…

I understand that completely. My concern is that “not later than five years” can mean four years and 364 days. I want to see something that is more tangible, and I think it needs to be put into this Bill. While five years is a standardised approach, two and a half years is much more effective because it allows us, as legislators, to make the appropriate changes as soon as possible. It means those who are delivering the care, receiving the care or advocating on behalf of those receiving the care can point to a defin…

By not accepting the amendment and not recognising the value of the two and a half year interim review, the Minister of State is closing the door on potential learnings for the new parts of the Bill that may not be enacted or may not be fully in place. There may be very valuable learnings from parts of the Bill that have been enacted and the services that have been in place for two and a half years. Those learnings will not be shared with or available to the other parts that need to come more into place.

I move amendment No. 29: In page 37, line 22, after “for” to insert “no more than”. As the Chair said, amendments Nos. 29 and 30 are related. They concern one of the issues that has most frequently been brought to my attention since Committee Stage of the Bill, namely, the extension of the involuntary detention period from 21 days to, potentially, 42 days. The doubling of that timeframe has caused very real concern both for professionals and individuals who have previously been involuntarily detained, and for their…

I fundamentally disagree with the last part where the Minister of State said it should be left to secondary legislation. This House has seen no secondary legislation. I agree that regulations have a place, but it is not here. It would not give the confidence or reassurance to a patient who is being involuntarily detained, their loved ones or their advocates that at some point a regulation may exist that would entitle them to a formal capacity assessment. I am also very concerned that by not putting this into the Bi…

I move amendment No 30: In page 37, between lines 39 and 40, to insert the following: “(c) where a person is subject to involuntary treatment for a period exceeding 21 days, shall carry out a formal capacity assessment at regular intervals to determine whether the criteria for continued involuntary treatment still apply.”.

I move amendment No. 47: In page 64, line 21, after “made” to insert “within 5 days” This amendment relates to a potentially prolonged involuntary treatment period without timely access to decision-making supports. This amendment seeks to put in a definitive timeframe for when an application to the Circuit Court to put decision-making supports in place for somebody who lacks capacity or who is waiting on a capacity assessment can be done. It can be done at any time for involuntary treatment but the five-day window …

With the greatest respect to all those health professionals and to the Minister of State, nobody knows what is going to happen in the future. There may be a presumption of two or three weeks but that presumption may turn out to be false. There may be a presumption of a week that turns out to be false. None of us has the ability to see into the future. I agree with what the Minister of State said earlier on. The number of people who are involuntarily admitted is very low and the number of those who lack capacity is …

I move amendment No. 51: In page 68, between lines 6 and 7, to insert the following: “(4) The use of chemical restraint shall be notified to the Mental Health Commission within 24 hours and made available for review upon request by the individual or their advocate.”. This amendment relates directly to the use of chemical restraint on those subject to involuntary admission and treatment. This is an area within the Bill that we absolutely need to strengthen. Previous patients, their loved ones and advocates have stro…

After such a length of time since the Bill was introduced, that is simply not good enough. Chemical restraint must be governed with the same clear rules and subject to the same level of oversight as any other restrictive practice outlined in this Bill. I do not know why the decision was made to take out the reference to chemical restraint but that was the Minister of State's decision and this is where we stand today. Any restrictive practice causes concern for patients and their advocates and rightly so. However, i…

What kind of government looks struggling students in the eye and says, "You're on your own"? That would be those sitting on the opposite side of the House. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael came into power on a narrative of fairness and support for young people, and access to education, but instead we got the Minister touting that student fees will rise in September. From the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste, and the Ministers for public expenditure and Finance, we have heard a level of verbal gymnastics that was simply staggering …

When we speak of the GPO and the Moore Street area, we are not just talking about buildings and laneways, but of the cornerstone of our rebel history in a city that fought an empire. The GPO is not architecture; it was the battleground of striking for Irish independence. It is a monument to selfless sacrifice, and, when heavily shelled by the British forces, leaving much of it in ruins, it now appears Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and their Independents seek to rebrand that history and what it represents. At Easter 1916, …

I thank the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach for facilitating us.

I want to begin by acknowledging the great work done by staff in Children's Health Ireland, CHI. However, in the past month details of an unpublished report conducted on the clinical department of CHI at Crumlin hospital has been put into the public domain. One of the revelations in the report was a finding of several inappropriate and unnecessary NTPF-funded Saturday clinics conducted by a consultant. The report details how a consultant was facilitated to set up hundreds of appointments for patients who did not ne…

I thank the Minister. There has been a significant increase in Saturday clinics over the past years. An example of this concerns scopes. More than 10% of scopes are now done on a Saturday but the distribution is very uneven across hospitals. Of the scopes carried out in Cavan hospital, one third are now done on a Saturday, that is 900 out of a total of 2,700. However, hospitals are still conducting fewer scopes than they were in 2019 when all services were provided between Monday and Friday. Waiting lists did not r…

Will the Minister detail the steps she has taken to improve governance and accountability at Children's Health Ireland and will she publish the unpublished review of a department at CHI at Crumlin? Will she outline the steps she has taken to address the issues highlighted in the report?