Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

Deputy Rice's amendment relating to ECT and children will be discussed at a later date. I take on board what he said

. I thank those opposite for their support. No legislation is perfect when it is first drafted. There is always going to be unintended consequences. We have to listen to the sector. It is important that the Bill will be operational. It will be no good otherwise. I thank my officials because there has been a huge amount of engagement since the Bill went through Second Stage last September. That work was ongoing during the time that we were off getting elected, and we did not have a government in place. I saw the list and there were more than 500 engagements. I saw the list of the amount of work that was carried out, which was unbelievable. It is important that we listen. In some of the commentary in the past few weeks, people were not aware of the amendments, because that is just the way the system works, whereas now I hope that when they see the amendments and they see that they have been drafted in good faith to try to address the issues, they will realise that what we want is a Bill that is patient-focused but that is patient-centred and workable as well for those who deliver the care.

We are talking about the most vulnerable people in society. Is our time up?

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