James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Jim Daly, and his departmental staff for their help and support on the Bill in the past year and a half. It is my first experience of bringing a Bill through the Oireachtas. It was a learning experience. There was significant support across the House for the Bill on each Stage. I also thank the Taoiseach, Deputy Varadkar, with whom I spoke personally on the issue last summer following his appointment.

I am grateful for the cross-party support I received. I will not name each group but every group came to me at various points and gave me support for the Bill when it was needed. I thank all the groups for that. I also thank Deputy Buckley for his intervention in recent weeks. The amendment he proposed was a good one and I hope the sentiment behind it will be supported by the Government in the near future.

I wish to say a sincere thanks to Mental Health Reform - Shari McDaid, Kate Mitchell and Ray Burke - for their guidance and support for the Bill from the very beginning. The Bill would not be here without their support.

I also wish to say a special thanks to Deputy Harty, who is the Chairman of the Joint Committee on Health. Most Bills die a death on Committee Stage but he took the Bill as his own, got it into the committee and drove it through. I praise him in particular for his work.

I give special thanks to my party leader, Deputy Micheál Martin, who has placed mental health as a priority for Fianna Fáil, both in terms of having a Front Bench spokesperson and also in terms of giving the support for any legislation or policy that is required. He has ensured that mental health is front and centre. This is the first Fianna Fáil Bill that has started and finished in the term of this Dáil and that is due to his determination that mental health would be a priority.

I thank my party colleagues for their advice and support as well. I also thank Declan Ryan, my researcher, and Stephanie Byrne and Michael Dwyer in my office who have given enormous support and have also given me cover when I needed to concentrate on my work on the Bill in Dublin and could not be in my constituency.

Most important, I thank the service users and their families who face their daily challenges with such bravery. It is for them that we all fight to support mental health. It is telling that there is such broad support for mental health in terms of where we need to go and what we need to be doing. We all need to work a lot harder to ensure the implementation of the supports for mental health services in this country. The Bill is only a small step towards giving people the mental health care rights they deserve and the protections they need but it is a step in the right direction. It is an important step which amends the Mental Health Act 2001 by strengthening the rights and protections of voluntary and involuntary patients, both adults and children. I hope it will act as a catalyst to the provision of a comprehensive mental health reform Bill that is badly needed to implement all the recommendations from the expert review group.

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