Frances Black (Independent) | Oireachtas source

With regard to section 9, which is proposed in head 10 and relates to authorised officers, the head refers to "Persons who may apply for involuntary admission". That is obviously very welcome. In consultation with the HSE, family members wanted to retain the option to apply for involuntary admission for relatives. I stress that an appropriately funded authorised officer service represents best practice. I have just one concern. I will read out a piece of the explanatory note in the general scheme. It says:

... [The expert group's] Recommendation 36 states that an authorised officer should be the only person to sign applications for involuntary admission to an approved centre. The EGR clearly recommended that it should always be an authorised officer who makes an application for a person to be involuntarily admitted. For this to operate effectively and in a timely manner, the HSE will need to guarantee that there are enough trained authorised officers available in all areas on a 24/7 basis. It would also mean that should the HSE require more time and resources to build up the authorised officer service, [This is all really good] then this new provision could not come into effect until the full service is in place, so this section may need to be commenced at a later date to the rest of the Act.

This is the concern. Has the Department sanctioned additional funding for increased numbers of authorised officers? Has a scoping exercise been carried out in respect of the community health resource areas where there are no authorised officers? How will the delay be avoided?