Dan Neville (Limerick, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Dr. Shannon for his presentation. He mentioned a review of the Child Care Act. I wish to ask about the involuntary admission of children to mental health treatment. According to our Constitution a child is a person under 18 years of age. I can understand young children being admitted for such treatment involuntarily, but are teenagers with difficulties consulted regarding involuntary admission? If so, what level of consultation takes place? We refer to mental health services for children and adolescents but there is no such thing as adolescence unless one goes over 18, if one wants to call them adolescents. Legally, anyone under 18 is a child.

We have been concerned for a number of years about mental health services for children. Some improvement has taken place but it is coming from a low base. Children are still being admitted to adult psychiatric institutions, which is a matter of concern years after an all-party commitment was made to ensure it would not happen.

Has Dr. Shannon examined the area of cyberbullying, which is much misunderstood? The media will label everything as cyberbullying but in the cases I have examined, cyberbullying had very little to do with it. That is because there was a history of serious mental illness concerning children as young as six who later took their lives aged 13, 14 or 15, yet somebody signed off on it as being the result of cyberbullying. It is a real issue but we do not have a handle on it. Can we get a handle on it? How does one undertake research in that area? We can all say we must do something about it, but if we do not know the extent, limitations or the issues involved, what can we do? What is Dr. Shannon's experience in that regard? He has not examined that area but perhaps he has an opinion on it.