I move amendment No. 54:
In page 26, to delete line 41, and in page 27, to delete lines 1 to 3 and substitute the following:
“(6) In this section and section 18, “relevant person” means a person who—
(a) is a spouse of the person, the subject of the application, but does not include a spouse who is living separately and apart from the person or in respect of whom—
(i) an application for an order has been made but…
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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- constituency Waterford 29 November 2024 to now
- party Fianna Fáil 29 November 2024 to now
- office 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 23 January 2025 to now
I move amendment No. 56:
In page 27, line 13, to delete “view” and substitute “opinion”.
These are technical amendments to replace the word “view” with “opinion” at various points throughout the Bill.
I move amendment No. 61:
In page 29, line 9, before “take” to insert “take all reasonable measures necessary to”.
Following publication of the Bill last July, officials in my Department continued to consult key stakeholders. Invaluable feedback was provided by An Garda Síochána and the Department of Justice regarding the provisions on Garda powers in the Bill.
An Garda Síochána examined the Bill in terms of operab…
Agreed.
I thank the Deputies for their appropriate questions. In 2023, 16% of applications were made by authorised officers and 32% by gardaí. That is to put it into context. The Department and the HSE recognise that for the authorised officer system to work effectively, officers must be available nationwide on a 24-7 basis. I am in 100% and total agreement. The expectation is not that an authorised officer would be availabl…
I agree wholeheartedly. As I said, 174 is the most recent figure I received. In order for this important aspect of the Bill to work, we need sufficient authorised officers. It is hard to judge how many will be needed. Authorised officers made 16% of applications in 2023, while gardaí made 32%. This means that one sixth of applications were made by authorised officers. I agree that we cannot take an ad hoc approach to…
The Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015 did not come into place until 2023. We are looking at 2028. We have to be realistic. There are certain facets of it we want to see being implemented very quickly. There will be a formal implementation plan for the Act. It will set out timelines, the resources needed, etc. I am keen that we would start straight away. I have already written to the Mental Health Commissio…
I cannot answer that question specifically. Authorised officers are paid a kind of overtime for work additional to their regular work. I anticipate that many authorised officers will do this in addition to their day jobs. Many of these requests are made out of hours and at weekends.
I am not understanding the question. What I am saying is that the estimate for the cost to get to the number we need is an additional €3.5 million. I imagine that would relate to those who are working part time. I can get more details and reply to the Deputy next week or on Report Stage.
That is the cost of the additional authorised officers.
I do not know. I will dig into that for the Deputy.
I move amendment No. 62:
In page 29, line 15, to delete "a Superintendent or Chief Superintendent" and substitute "a member of An Garda Síochána not below the rank of Inspector".
I move amendment No. 63:
In page 29, between lines 26 and 27, to insert the following:
"(4) Where an authorised officer or the Executive, as the case may be, receives a Garda request for an application for a recommendation for involuntary admission, the authorised officer or the Executive, as the case may be, shall comply with that request as soon as practicable.".
I move amendment No. 64:
In page 30, line 26, to delete "the" and substitute "An".
I move amendment No. 65:
In page 30, line 28, to delete "the" where it firstly occurs and substitute "An".
I move amendment No. 66:
In page 30, line 29, after "centre" to insert "or a consultant psychiatrist acting on that clinical director’s behalf".
I move amendment No. 67:
In page 30, lines 34 and 35, to delete "when a person is taken into custody under this section" and substitute the following:
"when a member or members of An Garda Síochána perform functions under this section or under section 19, 39, 71, 77 or 131".
I move amendment No. 68:
In page 30, between lines 35 and 36, to insert the following:
"(10) Where a recommendation for involuntary admission is made by a registered medical practitioner under this section, a copy of the recommendation shall be provided by the registered medical practitioner to the member of An Garda Síochána who is responsible for the person who is taken into custody under subsection (1), or anoth…
I move amendment No. 69:
In page 30, line 41, to delete “but not later than 12 hours”.
I move amendment No. 70:
In page 31, line 25, after "request" to insert "as soon as practicable".
I move amendment No. 71:
In page 31, line 35, to delete "view" and substitute "opinion".
I move amendment No. 72:
In page 32, to delete line 38 and substitute the following:
"(3) If, upon the proposed discharging from hospital of a person the subject of a recommendation for involuntary admission—".
I will speak first to amendment No. 93. This amendment provides for a stand-alone section relating to psychosocial assessments to be carried out within two working days of the admission order being made rat…
I thank the Deputies for those comments. To be clear, this is for people who are involuntarily detained. It will be written into the Bill, if it passes through the Houses of the Oireachtas, that a psychosocial assessment will be provided within two days. That is actually in the Bill, but what it does not specify is what the psychosocial assessment will be, which would never be expected in primary legislation. There w…
In fairness, what Deputy Clarke said was a bit of a misrepresentation. The care plan is embedded in regulation but cannot be determined in the legislation. Each care plan is individual to each person who may be involuntarily detained or will be in an approved centre voluntarily. We are setting out in primary legislation that there will be a care plan. I am very keen on care plans across everything, for older people a…
I move amendment No. 73:
In page 33, lines 17 and 18, to delete “in relation to a person, the subject of a recommendation for involuntary admission, means” and substitute “means, in relation to a person the subject of a recommendation for involuntary admission,”.