Victor Boyhan (Independent)

I raise two issues. First, I thank the Leader's office for arranging and facilitating statements on HIQA in relation to the review of HSE Mid West. I took the time to search how many times this issue was raised in the Seanad. It was raised loads of times. How many parliamentary questions were there in the Dáil? There were many of them. I encourage and hope that we will have good attendance this afternoon. There have been many demands for engagement and for statements from the Minister on this very important subject related to the mid-west and the various options this report is recommending. I will not go into too much detail but clearly there are options A, B and C set out in the executive summary of this report. We will have time to tease it out with the Minister. I understand the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, will be here and I look forward to engaging. I appeal to Members maybe listening in at committees this morning that if they can make it to Seanad Éireann to engage in this debate at 11.45 a.m., it would be worth participating and I hope many people will come. I will also flag something else. Mental Health Reform has been in touch with all of the Senators and TDs in these Houses on its key recommendations in respect of the Mental Health Bill. Tomorrow is the deadline for the first amendments in this House. Mental Health Reform has raised some very serious issues. It is a strong advocate. It is easy to tell an advocacy group that something is not consistent with our belief on mental health. I am reliably informed that the Minister will be proposing amendments to her own Bill in this House. Some of the Members should revisit that today, if possible. We have until tomorrow to submit amendments and we will have time to engage with the Minister next week. It is important that we use this House. We are a revising Chamber. We are not supposed to rubber-stamp all legislation that comes from the Government. We would be foolish to think that. It would not be right. We are a bicameral Parliament. Our function is to revise legislation. I hope we will see some amendments to this important legislation, the Mental Health Bill, which is tabled for debate in this House next week.