Johnny Mythen (Wexford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, for attending this debate. I hope we can all agree with the intention behind this Bill, which attempts to progress an issue on which work is long overdue. The aim of the Bill is to amend the Mental Health Act 2001 to provide a right for minors over the age of 16 to consent to mental health treatment and to provide for related matters. We simply want to give 16- and 17-year-olds the same legal right to consent to mental health treatment that they have to consent to physical health and dental treatment. The Bill aims to rectify this disparity in law.

This change has been recommended by many, including the Law Reform Commission, the HSE, the report of the expert group on the review of the Mental Health Act 2001 and others. As the Minister of State is aware, the Oireachtas committee's report on its pre-legislative scrutiny of the draft heads of Bill to amend the 2001 Act also includes a recommendation on this issue. There appears to be real cross-party agreement on this but we need the change to be a priority. We in Sinn Féin understand the urgency of this change, which is included in the programme in the Government. We are willing to work with Members on all sides of the House and to take on board any suggestions to strengthen the Bill.

This is a progressive mental health Bill that acknowledges and supports our young people and will bring much-needed reform to the capacity and quality of youth mental health services. In general, parity between the treatment of mental health and physical health is something we all must aim to achieve. In my county of Wexford, the latest figures I have received show there are 19 young people waiting more than a year for mental health treatment. The only out-of-hours mental health care for children and adolescents is provided through an acute hospital setting. Mental health issues do not go away at 5 p.m. on a Friday and they cannot be put on a waiting list. We have a long way to go yet in providing the quality of services our children and young people need and deserve.

This legislation is also about destigmatising mental health treatment. It recognises that mental health issues should be treated like any other health issue. By working together, we are showing the Oireachtas is a place in which issues around mental health and mental health conditions can be discussed from a position of empathy and care. It is important to clarify that the Bill does not take away any protections from vulnerable young people. Capacity legislation provides protections for vulnerable adults and those protections should also apply to 16- and 17-year-olds.

The Bill goes a long way to protect one of the most fundamental principles of any civilisation, which is the right for people to be who they are. By ensuring the freedom to consent to or refuse treatment, we can play a role in tackling the many facets of so-called conversion therapy. For too long, the criminalisation of sexual orientation and the associated exclusion of individuals existed in our country. As a State, we have a responsibility to our citizens and especially our young people, whose protection must be a priority. It is shameful that conversion therapy is still legal in this country. One can only imagine what it must be like to have therapy used, emotionally or physically, to cure or repair a person's sexuality. This is debased and sordid and it must be challenged and confronted in the strongest possible terms.

We must recognise and acknowledge that the Irish people have come a long way in their progressive thinking and their desire for equality in the way we live our daily lives. The result of the referendum on same-sex marriage was testament to that. In this Bill, we, as legislators, have an opportunity to bring about what I believe is the will of the people, which is to protect young people from the harms of conversion therapy until it is banned in law once and for all. The Bill provides an opportunity to bring ourselves into line with the principles of Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which concerns the right to be heard. We cannot in all conscience shy away from what needs to be done and what should have been done a long time ago.

I thank my colleague Deputy Ward for his outstanding work on this Bill, Senator Warfield for his work on the Prohibition of Conversion Therapies Bill 2018, former Senator Máire Devine, who campaigned on this issue for years, and all of those who have contributed to the debate. I hope the Minister of State and Members will accept what we are trying to do in this Bill and will work with us to progress it through the House. To do so would be the essence of a good republic. As Thomas Jefferson once said: "The care of human life and happiness ... is the first and only legitimate object of good government."

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