Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Deputies for their appropriate questions. In 2023, 16% of applications were made by authorised officers and 32% by gardaí. That is to put it into context. The Department and the HSE recognise that for the authorised officer system to work effectively, officers must be available nationwide on a 24-7 basis. I am in 100% and total agreement. The expectation is not that an authorised officer would be available in every village, but one should be available in at least every county and in every medium to large urban centre, but I believe we have to go further than that. The CAST project in Limerick is a useful example of how the authorised officer might work in the future, with a dual Garda-health service approach.

As of the last figures I had available, from September 2024, there were 174 authorised officers trained within the HSE. All officers are mental health professionals, with the majority being either mental health nurses or social workers. At present, people work as authorised officers as an add-on to their existing job in the evenings and on weekends. The HSE also provides specific training, so some are psychiatric nurses, occupational therapists, registered psychiatrists and social workers, but they are mostly clinical nurse specialists, psychiatric nurses and social workers. The HSE has been aware of the introduction of this system for a number of years and must be satisfied and ensure all of us, me as Minister of State and the Department of Health are satisfied that it has enough authorised officers and that the system as designed can work effectively. Initial costings estimate the system for authorised officers will cost €3.5 million per year.

Following Committee Stage, the HSE must begin to make preparations for the expansion of the authorised officer system, but I know it has already begun. I heard from the Orla Keane at the Mental Health Commission today that it had provided some of this additional training already. As I have said, for all facets of the Bill there will be lead-in time, but we have to be 100% sure there are enough authorised officers to respond wherever they are requested all over the country. It is one of the areas where we will not be able to make the changes from gardaí to authorised officers until we are satisfied that we have enough of them. We have a good start with 174.

That is the most recent figure available to me. We have to at least double it, if not more. That is the most up-to-date information I have, but the figure will rise quickly. From listening to and engaging with gardaí at many levels, I am aware that nearly one third of all involuntary detentions, especially of very ill people, are made by gardaí. That is not their role. It is a role they want to move away from but that cannot happen until we have enough authorised officers. For authorised officers as we know them, it is an additional part of their work. I will not call it overtime but it is an add-on. We are going to need full-time authorised officers, especially in the larger cities.

When the legislation is amended by the Oireachtas and passed, there will be a major amount of work to be done in respect of authorised officers and the various plans to be put in place by the HSE, the Department of justice and others - the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act relates to the Department of children and disability - to make sure it is workable. There is no point in it being on paper if we do not have enough authorised officers to do exactly what we want them to do, as per the Bill.

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