Geraldine Feeney (Fianna Fail)

In common with other Senators, I welcome the Minister of State to the House. It is very fitting that his maiden speech should be made in this Chamber and I congratulate him on his election to Dáil Éireann and wish him well in his position as Minister of State.

I welcome the opportunity to comment on this fine report of the Inspector of Mental Hospitals, Dr. Dermot Walsh. Recognition must be given to Irish mental health service for the fact that we are in line with international development in this regard. The introduction of the Mental Health Act brings us up to date with European human rights law. I also wish to recognise the ongoing work of the Mental Health Commission to which other speakers have alluded. All of this started in 1984 when the psychiatric services looked at planning for the future. That involved two significant components, one of which was the rightful separation of learning disability and psychiatric illnesses and the other was the significant progress in the advancement of treatment from a custodial setting to a more therapeutic setting. The Minster of State alluded to this when he talked about the move away from hospital-based to more community-based treatment. This gives patients, or clients as they are now called, the opportunity and encouragement to build independent lives. They would not have been able to do this previously because they were institutionalised in the big old hospitals which we all remember.