Seanad amendment No. 4 relates to the power of the HSE to use the electronic health record for specified public interest purposes. As the Minister outlined on Second Stage in the Seanad, there are a number of critical building blocks on the path to the full digitalisation of health records. One is the patient app, which now has over 157,000 users.

This Bill, which will establish a legal duty to share information, represents a significant opportunity to move towards a more connected health service that fully embraces the potential of quality electronic health data collected in the health system every day. In so doing, it will lay the foundations for a much more innovative and efficient health service which, above all, centres on the patient. I thank all Deputies for their engagement and for their contributions to the debate on and support in respect of this s…

I move: Tuesday's business shall be: - Motion re Eleventh Report of the Standing Committee of Selection (without debate and any division claimed to be taken immediately) - Motion re Organisation of Working Time (Reproductive Health Related Leave) Bill 2021 (without debate) Tuesday's private members' business shall be the Motion re Special Education, selected by Sinn Féin. Wednesday's business shall be: - Statements and Q&A post European Council meeting of 19th March 2026, pursuant to Standing Order 133 (not to exce…

Just so that all Deputies are aware, I will clarify that they do not need to be a member of a committee to attend meetings. I note the comments made and the requests for statements. These will be considered at the meeting of the Business Committee on Thursday, as normal. The Order of Business stands.

It is not being opposed.

I move: That Dáil Éireann, pursuant to Standing Order 33, and with effect from 21st April, 2026, approves the Eleventh Report of the Standing Committee of Selection, copies of which were laid before Dáil Éireann on 17th April, 2026.

I heard that, too.

I thank the Deputy. The frustration that many people feel I have felt as well for quite a while. When it was announced initially in 2020 or 2021, we were in the middle of Covid. It was then held up for three years by the clinicians. At the time, I was very frustrated with them but I agree with them now. They did not want the new approved centre, the new department of psychiatry in UHW, to be, as was proposed, on the site adjacent but not connected to it. It is now going to be connected. I have allocated over €40 mi…

The question the Deputy asked was about the HSE capital plan for Waterford and the south east in relation to mental health and mental health beds. I can speak to that. In relation to the other issues the Deputy mentioned, I do not have the relevant information but I discussed it when I had the meeting with HSE estates. On the two-storey vertical extension, the vertical overhang as it is called, my understanding is that the management at the hospital has made a different decision in relation to that and thinks that …

It is important acknowledge the surgical hub. Earlier, the Deputy said he is a fan of surgical hubs. Some €90 million in capital investment is being spent on the surgical hub. I was delighted to be there last year, along with the Minister, to turn the sod on it, even though it was well under way at the time and will be open before Christmas, which is really important. Another piece of good news is that a site has been identified in Waterford city for a new ambulance base, which is also really important. I do not ha…

I am taking this on behalf of the Minister of State, Deputy Murnane O'Connor. She sends her apologies. I thank Deputies Ardagh and Daly for their interest in the prevention of drug use among young people in Ireland and for the opportunity to provide an update to the House on this very important work. As Deputy Daly will be aware, the Minister of State published the draft national drugs strategy in early February. The successor strategy will seek to further the progress made under the previous drugs strategy and emp…

Planet Youth Ireland is an initiative to promote, as Deputy Daly said, well-being among our children and adolescents. It takes a ground-up approach whereby local regions enter into a process that researches local government agencies, the education sector and young people themselves. Planet Youth is not an intervention, though, rather a data collection exercise that provides evidence to inform interventions. The Icelandic prevention model refers to efforts made in Iceland to address adolescent drugs and alcohol use.…

Planet Youth Ireland communicated that it intends to discontinue its links with Planet Youth as it was felt the work done by Planet Youth could be done in Ireland at a lower cost. Planet Youth Ireland is separating from Planet Youth while continuing to do the work. For example, a number of regular surveys capturing information on youth drug and alcohol use patterns, risks and protective factors have been implemented in Ireland. These include European school survey projects on alcohol and drugs every four years, wit…

This grouping is exclusively related to minor changes to amendments in section 2 of the Bill. For example, all of the amendments that are currently in section 60 of the Bill are being moved to section 2. Another amendment is moving the definition of "involuntary admission order" slightly further down the same page to ensure that all definitions are in alphabetical order. The definition of "child" has been reworded by the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel to better align with wording in other relevant Acts. The me…

These amendments relate to definitions and references to the relevant carers for children throughout the Bill, to improve the readability of the Bill and to have consistency throughout the Bill, for example, with regard to provision of information to the relevant carer of the child. We discussed in extensive detail the interaction between the Mental Health Bill and the Child Care Act on Committee Stage and the Senators all took part in those discussions. The two pieces of legislation will interact in cases where a …

I thank Senator Boyhan. As I have said, it is really important when we have a lot of amendments that this is the business end of the Bill. What we are seeing now is quite different to what the Bill was when it started out. Many changes have been made. We went into extensive detail on the interaction between the Mental Health Bill and the Child Care Act on Committee Stage. I thank the Attorney General, the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel, the Department of Health, the Department of children and the Bills Office.…

There was extensive debate on the topic of advocacy during Committee Stage on a number of amendments over a number of hours. Following those debates, as well as the amendment tabled by Senator Frances Black, I am introducing a number of amendments relating to information on advocacy supports. These amendments will ensure that any person admitted under the new Act will be given information relating to any available advocacy supports. This will apply to children and adults, ensuring that information and advocacy supp…

Yes.

Quite a lot of issues have been discussed so I will I try to address them as best I can. To be clear, I am introducing a number of amendments related to information on advocacy supports. These amendments will ensure that any person admitted under the new Act will be given information on any available advocacy supports. This will apply to both children and adults, ensuring that information on advocacy supports will be available regardless of a person's age. With regard to advocacy in the legislation, sections 185 an…

When we had the challenges in Kerry in 2022, I funded YAP to go into Kerry. There are 100 plus YAP advocates, 450 plus families who have participated and it is active in 22 counties. We are moving it out as best we can. I want to give a shout-out to the YAP team because they are fantastic. Not a lot of people know about them but I do, and I fund them. I have committed to expanding advocacy at the level of secondary legislation. A huge amount of what I have to do relates to secondary legislation. As I said, there is…