Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Deputies for those comments. To be clear, this is for people who are involuntarily detained. It will be written into the Bill, if it passes through the Houses of the Oireachtas, that a psychosocial assessment will be provided within two days. That is actually in the Bill, but what it does not specify is what the psychosocial assessment will be, which would never be expected in primary legislation. There will be greater flexibility for amendment if it is brought to secondary legislation, if it does not fulfil the purpose of what it is meant to be.

To be very clear, this is a new introduction. It is a change from the 2001 Act. We are saying that a psychosocial assessment will be made available to somebody who is involuntarily detained within two days. The reason we moved to two days from the initial Bill is, sometimes, people are not working 7-7, and someone admitted over the weekend might not have access to that psychosocial support. That is why we moved it out to 48 hours.

The other piece is that psychosocial assessment is in the Bill. What the Deputies are looking for is clarification of what that assessment is. That will come in secondary legislation, which will also give us more opportunities if it has to be amended. It is there. It is part of the Bill. It is for those who are involuntarily detained. To Deputy Ó Murchú's point, it is not about psychosocial assessments in the community. This section just deals with the involuntary detention piece.

See this speech in context