I thank all the Deputies for their comments.
The reason amendment No. 206 is not being accepted is because this amendment duplicates what is already in the Bill. There are 223 sections in the Bill. It is huge and very complex. There is a lot in it and it is hard to take every bit of it in, but that amendment is a duplication. That is the only reason why it is not being accepted.
I do not disagree with the Deputies …
TDs / Mary Butler
Mary Butler
Minister of State at the Department of the Taoiseach with special responsibility as Government Chief Whip; and the Department of Health with responsibility for Mental Health
Portrait: Mary Butler (CC BY 4.0) · source file
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Sorry to cut across the Deputy. Those are not accepted. It is because their referrals are not accepted.
I have a couple of points to make as I have spoken extensively on the waiting lists. It is important to acknowledge, however, that last year there were 233,000 appointments allocated by CAMHS and approximately 8% or 9% were not attended for a myriad of reasons. For some, they may have aged out and, for others, they may have gone privately, and there may be other reasons they did not attend. By the end of April of thi…
In fairness, 97% of all urgent referrals to CAMHS were responded to within three days up to April 2025, and they are the latest figures I have received. What often happens is children might present to CAMHS and whatever diagnosis they have may not be as severe as others and they become the long waiters. That is the area I am not happy about. The other thing is the consultant psychiatrist and clinicians in the multidi…
Some teams accept more referrals while others accept less. All I can say on the floor of the Dáil is my commitment to trying to provide additional funding.
We have 81 teams. We have relocated many CAMHS teams into good primary care centres, which have good locations, yet we are still seeing the waiting lists grow. We have 1.2 million young people in the country, whereas five years ago, we had 900,000. This is a 25% …
I move amendment No. 207:
In page 96, line 36, to delete "shall" and substitute "may".
I move amendment No. 208:
In page 104, line 15, to delete "section 48" and substitute "section 10".
I move amendment No. 209:
In page 105, line 3, to delete “such members of the staff of the Commission” and substitute “such members of the staff of the Commission and the Chief Executive Officer”.
I move amendment No. 210:
In page 105, line 7, to delete “former members of the staff of the Commission” and substitute “former members of the staff of the Commission and former Chief Executive Officers”.
The expert group review of the Mental Health Act did not recommend that a professional other than a consultant psychiatrist could become the inspector of mental health services. In every registered acute mental health centre, the clinical director is a consultant psychiatrist. Furthermore, the only profession that can make an admission or renewal order is a consultant psychiatrist. As such, it would appear rational t…
I move amendment No. 214:
In page 113, line 26, to delete “3 years,” and substitute “3 years, and”.
I move amendment No. 215:
In page 113, line 28, to delete “5 years, and” and substitute “5 years,”.
I move amendment No. 216:
In page 113, to delete lines 29 and 30.
I move amendment No. 217:
In page 113, to delete lines 32 to 37.
I move amendment No. 218:
In page 113, line 38, to delete “section 135,” and substitute “section 135, and”.
I move amendment No. 219:
In page 113, to delete line 39.
I move amendment No. 220:
In page 114, between lines 2 and 3, to insert the following:
“(2) In relation to a registered community mental health service, the Chief Inspector shall visit and inspect a representative number of those services within the registration period, taking into account—
(a) a geographic area of registration ensuring a balanced representation of inspection across that area,
(b) the level of co…
I move amendment No. 221:
In page 116, line 29, to delete “registered mental health service under section 128,” and substitute the following:
“registered acute mental health centre under section 128(1),”.
I move amendment No. 222:
In page 116, line 34, to delete “sections 25 and 73” and substitute “section 25, 73 or 74”.
I move amendment No. 223:
In page 116, line 35, to delete “registered mental health service” and substitute “registered acute mental health centre”.
I move amendment No. 224.
In page 116, lines 37 and 38, to delete “section 128” and substitute “section 128(1)”.
I move amendment No. 225:
In page 116, lines 39 and 40, to delete “he or she” and substitute “the inspector”.
I move amendment No. 226:
In page 116, after line 40, to insert the following:
“(3) When making an inspection of any registered community mental health centre under section 128(1) or any registered community mental health service under section 128(2), the inspector shall inspect the service or centre, as the case may be, for compliance with the provisions of this Act or any regulations or codes of practice made the…
I move amendment No. 227:
In page 117, line 4, to delete “section 128(a)” and substitute “subsection (1)(a) or (2) of section 128”.
I move amendment No. 229:
In page 120, lines 26 and 27, to delete all words from and including “by” in line 26, down to and including line 27 and substitute “in section 163.”.