Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)

We have had this conversation many times about admitting children into adult psychiatric facilities. The Government had four years to get this right and it has failed. It is draconian. The practice is wrong. Every human rights organisation has said it is absolutely wrong. The Government also had four years to get the regulation of CAMHS in place. It is not in this Bill. It is literally not good enough. We will be voting on a Bill that does not regulate CAMHS. There were numerous reports, including the Maskey report and the Mental Health Commission report, which outlined all the problems there were in CAMHS. The number one recommendation in those reports was that CAMHS needed to be regulated and the Government failed to do so. There is not one mention of dual diagnosis in the Bill either.

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