Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 2 November 2021

Joint Committee On Health

General Scheme of the Mental Health (Amendment) Bill 2021: Department of Health

Mr. Seamus Hempenstall:

No, but I think in fairness the subcommittee has a fairly comprehensive document with a general scheme. I would not envisage our moving significantly beyond any of the major policy issues or the technical things either. I do not think it is valid to say that we do not know how it is. There is a fairly significant briefing document to go along with the heads. If the subcommittee has queries about particular aspects, that is what this process is for. I know Mr. Kelly has been liaising with the clerk as well on how long the pre-legislative scrutiny process with take and that will feed into the timetable for doing the Bill. The timeframe is not entirely within our gift. There are 15 other Departments with legislation and who knows what 2022 will bring? I wanted to convey that there is energy and momentum behind this. We want to move ahead and get it done as quickly as reasonably possible.