Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Regarding the Mental Health Act 2001, as it stands, it seems that 2,500 people per year will not be covered by this legislation - those who are involuntarily detained under that Act. The Minister mentioned the sequences within the Act and the review of that Act. I do not know how long that will take and I am on the relevant committee. We undertook pre-legislative scrutiny and had discussions but we did not have any stand-alone discussion, debate or testimony from witnesses or experts on the impact the legislation we are talking about here will have on people with mental health issues. It did not come up. What conversations has the Minister had with the Department of Health? Why was this issue not flagged with that Department to make sure it would form part of the pre-legislative scrutiny of the Bill? There is a report coming out very soon. I am not sure what is in it because I have not seen it but, when we do see it, I imagine there will be very little mention of the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act within. I am still a little bit unsure about how this is going to work.

I will ask the Minister to clarify another matter. If we amend the Mental Health Act 2001 to allow those detained under that Act the same rights as everybody else, will we then have to come back at another stage to amend this legislation?