Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

We have to put this into perspective. I have been Minister of State with responsibility for mental health for five and half years. I have been involved the passage of six budgets and have increased the funding for mental health by 50% over that time. A huge amount of work has gone into this Bill. The expert panel was talking about this back in 2014 but I have taken the bull by the horns with this Bill. As stated, I first moved Second Stage of this Bill in September 2024. I was hoping to have it concluded by Christmas of last year.

There are 220 sections, and it is a very complex Bill. It is landmark legislation. I thank Senators for acknowledging that. No Bill is perfect in its infancy. There are very few Bills that we do not amend, but we are trying to align this Bill with legislation that falls under the remit of the Departments of children, justice and health. That is where the additional amendments come in.

What we are trying to achieve with the Bill relates, for example,to young people aged 16 having the right to autonomy in relation to their mental health. That is one of the substantive changes. The fact that CAMHS will be regulated is the second substantive change. We have around 1,200 people across the country living in houses. I refer to situations where four or five people are living together in communities. These individuals have enduring mental health conditions and they need 24-7 wraparound supports. For the first time ever, there is going to be oversight in this regard, which is really important.

By means of this Bill, I will be banning the use of electroconvulsive therapy, ECT, for 16- and 17-year-olds. This has not happened in the past ten years, and there is no consultant in Ireland who is qualified to do it, but I still think it is important to send out a clear signal. That is why the relevant provision is in the Bill.

A significant part of the Bill relates to the involuntary detention of people who lack capacity. An awful lot of the work we did in the Dáil focused on that. While we may be talking about a tiny minority of people, their human rights have to be upheld. Another big part of the Bill relates to the changes we are going to make for those who are involuntarily detained. Gardaí will no longer be doing this, when we get to that particular stage, if that is what they want. We will have authorised officers in place. I will speak more about that when we get into the detail of the Bill. I will give Senators information on the number of authorised officers that we already have in place, but we have to train up more.

I will give the Bill the time it needs. I will not be rushing it, but, as soon as I get it through the Houses, the team that has been working with me for the past four years will move to a different level. The Bill will be done and they will move to implement it, which will be done in different stages. The entire Bill cannot be introduced at once, but that is the plan. The legislation provides that after five years we will look at the implementation of and results relating to the Bill. There are lots of things like that which have already been teased out, but I am happy to tease them out further.

I acknowledge that everyone here tonight is very passionate about mental health. I thank them for their time and assure them that I want to work with them in a spirit of collegiality with the aim of getting the best possible Bill for a very vulnerable group of people who are depending on this legislation. The Bill is long overdue. I am looking forward to getting it through the Houses.