Evanne Ní Chuilinn (Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister of State for all her work. As she said, she has worked on this for four, five or six years. Everybody in this Chamber acknowledges that and we thank her for it. As the Senator said, everybody who is here cares about this legislation and the people who will be impacted by it. As others have said, this is not a personal thing, but I want to go on the record about the dual diagnosis piece and the lack of understanding, from my reading of it. I look forward to the Minister of State's comments on it. She says it is inappropriate to define dual diagnosis in the Bill because it would then exclude other forms of dual diagnosis. However, people who are suffering from a dual diagnosis of mental illness and addiction have a specific set of vulnerabilities. They are more vulnerable than lots of other people in society for those reasons.

People with co-existing disorders and addiction and substance misuses are not excluded from admission under the existing Mental Health Act or this Bill. However, I would argue that on the ground, these people are being left behind and they are not getting the access they need because sometimes they do not know how to find their voice to access what they need. I look forward to the explanation as to why we are not protecting these people in legislation. I feel this is an opportunity to do so. I just wanted to put that on the record.