Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

The Bill deals with the mental health of the child, young person or adult. It does not address whether a child is on the streets or in the care of Tusla. It deals with a child and the mental health challenges that child may or may not have.

The Senator asked who will look after a child's interests if they are aged 16 or 17 years, are involuntarily detained, do not have capacity or are bipolar or psychotic. The Bill looks after them. It is all there in the Bill. I do not know whether the Senator has read the Bill in the detail I have. It is all right to shake one's head. However, there are safeguards in the Bill.

I need to go back to the start again. This is a technical amendment relating to wording. The one area where I got unanimity across many sectors was a recognition, going back to the expert panel in 2014, that 16- and 17-year-olds should have autonomy to make decisions for themselves on their mental health, with safeguards. All the amendment proposes is to amend the definition of capacity assessment in section 2 to clarify that capacity assessments refer to children over 16 years of age. It does not refer to those aged 12, 13, 14 or 15. Rather, it refers to those aged over 16, that is, 1-6 and 17-year-olds, where the previous Bill referred to capacity assessments as starting at the age of 18. That is the one area where we had a huge amount of agreement across the board.

I have met many organisations and groups over many years and that was one part where concerns were raised, especially for those who are very ill and do not have capacity. That will be dealt with in the Bill as we get through it. A lot of what I am seeking to do initially this week relates to technical amendments to make the Bill easier to read and compliant with the Childcare Act 1991.