Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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131. To ask the Minister for Health the number of times section 12 of the Mental Health Act 2001 was invoked in each of the years 2015 and 2016 and to date in 2017 by An Garda Síochána, by division, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52420/17]

Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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132. To ask the Minister for Health the number of times section 12 of the Mental Health Act 2001 was invoked in each of the years 2015 and 2016 and to date in 2017 between the hours of 6 pm and 9 am; the number that occurred at the weekend and bank holidays by division, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52421/17]

Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 131 and 132 together.

The statutory remit of the Mental Health Commission is to promote, encourage and foster the establishment and maintenance of high standards and good practices in the delivery of mental health services and to take all reasonable steps to protect the interests of persons detained in approved centres under this Act. In line with this role, the Commission collects a range of data and much of this information is published in their Annual Report which is available on the Commission’s website.

Section 12 of the Mental Health Act 2001 confers powers on the Gardaí and allows them to take persons they believe may be suffering from a mental disorder, within the meaning of the Act, into custody with a view to making an application to a registered medical practitioner for a recommendation that the person be involuntarily admitted to an approved centre. Upon arrival in the approved centre, a Consultant Psychiatrist has 24 hours to examine the person and determine if he/she is suffering from a mental disorder.

The breakdown of applications for involuntary admission in 2015 and 2016 on a national basis by type of applicant, including by the Garda under section 12 of the 2001 Act, is as follows:

2015

2016

As the Deputy will see from the above tables, the number of applications by Gardaí under section 12 has risen from 404 in 2015 to 455 in 2016, a rise from 23 to 25%. Regional breakdowns of the national figures are not routinely collated nor is a breakdown of timings during the day when the person was taken into custody.

Up to 5 December 2017, 426 applications had been made for involuntary admission by a member of An Garda Síochána, however, these figures have not yet been verified.