Pat Gallagher (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Amendments Nos. 1 to 3, inclusive, and 5 to 8, inclusive, are related and will be discussed together.

Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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I move:

"That the Committee do not agree with the Seanad in amendment No. 4 to the Mental Health (Amendment) Bill 2017."

We welcome the Bill and what has happened in the meantime. It is all about progression. I hope the Bill will pass today. It is six months since we began to discuss the Bill. That is a long time legislatively speaking but it seems to be a lot longer politically. I hope the Minister of State will take on board his commitment to move ahead with the proposal on the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act as well. Let us try to work together for the betterment of everything. It is a major issue in the mental health area. When we can do things together, work as a team and do things right it benefits everyone.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Jim Daly, and his departmental staff for their help and support on the Bill in the past year and a half. It is my first experience of bringing a Bill through the Oireachtas. It was a learning experience. There was significant support across the House for the Bill on each Stage. I also thank the Taoiseach, Deputy Varadkar, with whom I spoke personally on the issue last summer following his appointment.

I am grateful for the cross-party support I received. I will not name each group but every group came to me at various points and gave me support for the Bill when it was needed. I thank all the groups for that. I also thank Deputy Buckley for his intervention in recent weeks. The amendment he proposed was a good one and I hope the sentiment behind it will be supported by the Government in the near future.

I wish to say a sincere thanks to Mental Health Reform - Shari McDaid, Kate Mitchell and Ray Burke - for their guidance and support for the Bill from the very beginning. The Bill would not be here without their support.

I also wish to say a special thanks to Deputy Harty, who is the Chairman of the Joint Committee on Health. Most Bills die a death on Committee Stage but he took the Bill as his own, got it into the committee and drove it through. I praise him in particular for his work.

I give special thanks to my party leader, Deputy Micheál Martin, who has placed mental health as a priority for Fianna Fáil, both in terms of having a Front Bench spokesperson and also in terms of giving the support for any legislation or policy that is required. He has ensured that mental health is front and centre. This is the first Fianna Fáil Bill that has started and finished in the term of this Dáil and that is due to his determination that mental health would be a priority.

I thank my party colleagues for their advice and support as well. I also thank Declan Ryan, my researcher, and Stephanie Byrne and Michael Dwyer in my office who have given enormous support and have also given me cover when I needed to concentrate on my work on the Bill in Dublin and could not be in my constituency.

Most important, I thank the service users and their families who face their daily challenges with such bravery. It is for them that we all fight to support mental health. It is telling that there is such broad support for mental health in terms of where we need to go and what we need to be doing. We all need to work a lot harder to ensure the implementation of the supports for mental health services in this country. The Bill is only a small step towards giving people the mental health care rights they deserve and the protections they need but it is a step in the right direction. It is an important step which amends the Mental Health Act 2001 by strengthening the rights and protections of voluntary and involuntary patients, both adults and children. I hope it will act as a catalyst to the provision of a comprehensive mental health reform Bill that is badly needed to implement all the recommendations from the expert review group.

Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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Gabhaim buíochas as ucht an deis labhairt ar an ábhar tábhachtach seo. I congratulate Deputy James Browne on what he described as the first product of the new politics. The Fianna Fáil Party has brought through a Private Members' Bill from end to end. That is an historic achievement.

We are dealing with an important subject in mental health. I acknowledge the constructive and proactive approach Deputy Browne has brought to the Bill. He has been most sincere in his undertaking. As he rightly said - he has done it more eloquently than I can - this is for the service users and the betterment of the mental health service in this country. It is vital that we recognise that legislation does play a role in the betterment of their conditions and treatment but there are many other aspects to how we can help them but legislation is a powerful and important tool. I commend Deputy Browne and thank him.

I also thank Deputy Pat Buckley and the Sinn Féin Party for withdrawing the amendment. I agree with and fully support the sentiment behind the amendment. I will sit down with Deputy Buckley, Deputy Browne and other interested spokespersons to look at how we will progress our response to the judgment we have to deal with.

In no way was it the sentiment of the amendment that was problematic. It was 100% genuine on the part of Sinn Féin and I want to acknowledge that. I also want to acknowledge the party's generosity in withdrawing it because it would not have been in keeping with the spirit of this Bill. One of the privileges of being Minister of State with responsibility for mental health is that I get more co-operation from colleagues than any other Minister or Minister of State and experience very little division. That is not to say that I am not to be held to account for my actions or lack thereof, as Deputies may see it. There is a huge spirit of co-operation in the area of mental health and it is real privilege to act as Minister of State for that area. This Bill is another example of that spirit of co-operation and I am delighted that it is being passed without any division in the House. We owe that to the people who will benefit from it. The generosity of the Sinn Féin Party is not to be underestimated and is much appreciated.

I wish to acknowledge the role of the Mental Health Reform coalition and thank it for the contribution it has made and continues to make to ensuring that the legislative programme is kept moving along. I also wish to acknowledge the role of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health. I thank my officials for the many hours of work they put into assisting us to get to this point today. I am both delighted and proud to have brought this Bill through the Houses. I congratulate Deputy James Browne and thank everyone for their co-operation.

Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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Today is a great day, as I have said already. It is the last day of May, which is mental health month, and it is great to see Deputies from all parties and none working together for the benefit of the people of this country. It is great to knock heads together, have proper dialogue and come to mutual agreement for the benefit of our citizens. I thank Deputy James Browne, the Minister of State, Deputy Daly, and everyone who worked behind the scenes, including Sinn Féin staff and members of Mental Health Reform. Without the input of the latter, we would probably have struggled a little on certain issues. I would also like to thank Members of Seanad Éireann who worked on this as well as members of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health. An enormous amount of effort was put into this Bill. Sometimes legislation can move through the Houses quite quickly and people think the process is simple but it is not. I wish to thank my party leader, Deputy Mary Lou McDonald, for putting her faith in me and all of my party colleagues. It is a great day when neither colour, class, creed, religion nor politics stands in the way of improvement.

Pat Gallagher (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Deputies and congratulate them on the passage of the Bill.