Colm Keaveney (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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690. To ask the Minister for Health further to a Parliamentary Question of 18 September 2013 which stated that the expert group’s review of the Mental Health Act 2001 was expected before the end of 2013, if he will forward details of the report; if not already published, if he will provide the date on which the report will be published; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25775/14]

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. The Group was originally due to complete its report in 2013.

The publication last year 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.

Work on the review has been continuing and I now expect to receive the Expert Group's final report by the third quarter of 2014.