Mr. John Farrelly:

Yes, there are examples from all over the world. There has been a fair bit of research into it. There are different types of approach but there is no doubt that it works. During the Covid pandemic, section 12 has been used 10,000 times. On 10,000 occasions, a garda felt that a person had a mental illness severe enough for them to be a risk to themselves or others. One would wonder about the capability of a garda to make that decision. However, if members of the Garda were surrounded by a 24-7 social work service - and we have a lot of social workers, they just do not work around the clock in this area - they could very quickly access the expertise to support them.