Mr. John Farrelly:

I will speak to that initially. The Act is quite strong. I do not really understand the Senator's point regarding an independent complaints mechanism. I do not understand what people are articulating when they talk about an independent complaints body. If you are receiving a general health service and something goes wrong, you have the right to make a complaint to the body. That body should have a complaints process in place which includes independent elements. The HSE has that in place. We have regulations in place under which complaints must be acted upon and a process undertaken and we can monitor that. If the complainant is not happy with the HSE, he or she can go to the Ombudsman. It is the same process as for complaints regarding general health. I am not quite sure what people mean when they talk about an independent body. The culture around complaints should be such that they go to the people involved who then learn from it. Perhaps this is a little bit about people not trusting the provider to deal with complaints. Perhaps that is what is coming out. If that is the case, there is an onus on the provider to be even more transparent. I would suggest that what gives an added edge and is useful in this Bill is the introduction of the patient advocacy service and the ability to make applications to it. This will be for all community mental health services as well. People will be able to receive support from the patient advocacy service, where needed. That will strengthen the Act. That is the news.