Colm Keaveney (Galway East, Independent)
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1485. To ask the Minister for Health if he will forward to this Deputy details of the report of the expert group to review the Mental Health Act 2001 which was due to be published in the second quarter of 2013; if it has not yet been published, the reason for same and the date on which it will be published; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38117/13]

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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The Mental Health Act 2001 is the key piece of legislation regarding the rights of people involuntarily detained and treated in approved centres within our mental health services. A commitment to review the Act is contained in the current Programme for Government.

In 2011, I appointed a Steering Group to carry out an initial review of the Act ‘informed by human rights standards and in consultation with service users, carers and other stakeholders’. The report of the Steering Group was published in June 2012 and is available on my Department’s website.

An Expert Group was subsequently established to carry out the second and substantive phase of the review and the Group had its first meeting in September 2012. While the Group was originally due to complete its report by mid-2013, the report is now expected by the end of the year.

The publication in July of the proposed Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Bill, which has some direct links with the Mental Health Act of interest to the Expert Group, is a factor which led to an extension of the timeframe for completion of the report to end year.