Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

A significant amount of consultation and research went into drafting the criteria for involuntary admission that are set out in the Bill as initiated. People can perhaps give consent in the morning but then withdraw it in the afternoon. That does not mean they still do not need mental health supports from the multidisciplinary team in the department of psychiatry or the approved centre. It is a small cohort who are involuntarily detained. If someone has been involuntarily detained, he or she has already met a certain threshold.

Consent can change daily or weekly. Normally, if people have been involuntarily detained but they can then give consent, their detention is revoked and they can ask to leave. There is a very small minority of people who, when their detention is revoked, leave but still need help. That is the thrust of what I am trying to achieve in the Bill.

I took a huge amount of advice from people working in psychiatric hospitals who have many years of experience. Sometimes, people fall between the cracks. That is not what we are trying to address here. Subsections 2 and 3 of the amendment are already in the Bill. We are all in favour of that. In my opinion and that of those I have listened to, there would be vast unintended consequences to making capacity a part of the criteria for involuntary admission. The consent of people with enduring mental health conditions, who may be psychotic or very ill, can change hourly, daily or weekly.

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