Seanad debates

Tuesday, 22 June 2010

2:30 pm

Photo of Dan BoyleDan Boyle (Green Party)

On the legislation dealing with the election of the Dublin mayor, the Bill will be published within a matter of weeks and it is hoped parliamentary time will be made available in both Houses to allow it to be properly processed. I am confident it will be published and that parliamentary time will be provided. I do not know whether there will be sufficient time to allow it to be fully processed before the House goes into recess, that will depend on when the debate occurs in both Houses.

On the Central Bank Reform Bill which is to be brought before the House, I understand it allows for a mechanism of levies, but Senator O'Toole is correct that it does not specify what the levies will be and how they will be applied, a legitimate matter for debate in the House.

In regard to the banking inquiry, it is my understanding that the terms of reference of the commission of inquiry will be discussed by the members of the Joint Committee on Finance and the Public Service which includes Members of this House with the Minister for Finance today. The terms under which the committee should investigate other aspects of the two banking reports will be brought before both Houses when Members will have an opportunity to discuss the issues raised.

I call for a debate on mental health services, outside the need for additional resources or implementation of A Vision for Change which centres on the culture of mental health and psychiatric care services. During the weekend I visited a psychiatric facility in which I saw two young people, a 29 year old man and a 26 year old woman. The man had been in the facility for four years. He has a four year old child whom he has only seen on one occasion since he entered this facility. The 26 year old woman has been in it for five years. One of the reasons for her continued detention is some person medically defined her as being in danger of becoming promiscuous if she ever lived in the outside world. When our cultural values inform our system of psychiatric care in such a way, we need to consider the issues of resources and institutions in a wider context than the bread and butter arguments we tend to have in this House. We must ask whether we are making the correct decisions about people who are being kept on the outskirts of our society.

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