Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

In 2015, Government decided to draft a general scheme of a Bill to amend the Mental Health Act 2001 in line with the 165 recommendations of the 2015 expert group review report.

Among the expert group recommendations were proposals on revised criteria for detention, updated definitions of mental disorder and voluntary and involuntary patients, the introduction of guiding principles, statutory individual care plans, a greater role for authorised officers in involuntary admissions, improved safeguards for service users, shorter intervals for tribunals, a presumption of capacity for young people aged 16 and 17 years to consent or refuse treatment unless proven otherwise, and the introduction of guiding principles for the care of children under the Act. I thank the Deputy for his question because when I came to the post I was concerned to learn that the general scheme was drafted in 2015 and we had not made a lot of progress. The original Act was introduced in 2001 by the Taoiseach, Deputy Micheál Martin, who was then Minister for Health and Children. A lot of progress has been made in the last 18 months.

The Department shared the initial draft heads of Bill with the Mental Health Commission, the HSE, the Office of the Ombudsman for Children, the College of Psychiatrists of Ireland and the Departments of Justice and Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth for their consideration and input. Earlier this year, I launched a public consultation on the legislation which ran over March and April because I was conscious that the expert panel review had reported in 2015 and I felt we needed an update. Therefore, an independent legal review of the Bill was also completed.

The general scheme of a Bill to amend the 2001 Act was approved by the Government on 13 July and was published on the Department’s website on 23 July 2021. Pre-legislative scrutiny of the general scheme commenced on 2 November.

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