Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Today is a great day, as I have said already. It is the last day of May, which is mental health month, and it is great to see Deputies from all parties and none working together for the benefit of the people of this country. It is great to knock heads together, have proper dialogue and come to mutual agreement for the benefit of our citizens. I thank Deputy James Browne, the Minister of State, Deputy Daly, and everyone who worked behind the scenes, including Sinn Féin staff and members of Mental Health Reform. Without the input of the latter, we would probably have struggled a little on certain issues. I would also like to thank Members of Seanad Éireann who worked on this as well as members of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health. An enormous amount of effort was put into this Bill. Sometimes legislation can move through the Houses quite quickly and people think the process is simple but it is not. I wish to thank my party leader, Deputy Mary Lou McDonald, for putting her faith in me and all of my party colleagues. It is a great day when neither colour, class, creed, religion nor politics stands in the way of improvement.

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