I welcome the Minister of State and her officials. I thank her for the rationale around these amendments. I hope we can conduct our business as speedily as possible. We have done all the bits of debate. I can only speak for myself, but I do not envisage much more. I thank the staff of the Minister of State for facilitating us with the small, brief and concise explanatory memorandum. That helps us to digest the information and get through a lot of it. I also want to put on the record my thanks to the Bills Office. I…

I note what the Minister of State has said and put on the record of the House. It is consistent with the briefing note we all received. My takeaway from it is that the Minister of State is telling us these amendments are about being compatible with the Child Care Act, about having regard to Tusla and its current status, and about the balance between the right of access and the work of Tusla as an advocate, because it is a legitimate advocate in many cases, and parents. This is my understanding of it. I also underst…

I ask the Acting Chair to read into the record the reason for this amendment being ruled out of order because it is important we put it on the record of the House.

Is there a reason for doing that?

Okay.

I wish to move amendment No. 41. Senator McCarthy has agreed to second it. Perhaps the Acting Chairperson will clarify that. It is in this group of amendments.

I know that. I will speak on it.

I fully understand. I thank the Minister of State. I suppose this is one of the kernels of the legislation and in some ways would indicate one of the central problems of it. To put it into context, I will say a few things about advocacy. Today I want to wish the Psychiatric Nurses Association of Ireland well in its conference.

As we speak, the association is having a conference in Cavan on CAMHS. Today many people will have heard the interview on "Morning Ireland". While this point is not teed up for this per se , I just wanted to put it in the context of advocacy. They asked if the Minister would consider a pause on the proposal to close the ten-bed child and adult mental health service at St. Vincent's in Fairview. This leads me to the issue of advocacy for CAMHS. I looked at the Government Information Service, GIS, and the Government …

I thank the Minister of State for explaining that and for the lesson on transitional provisions-----

That should not be done when a Senator has the floor.

I will restart. I thank the Minister of State very much for setting out the transitional provisions. I take her word for it. She has confirmed that it is time-bound. That is a really important point. She also talked about the Mental Health Commission and its role and oversight in terms of governance. Of course, that is always really important. We will have another opportunity to talk about the Mental Health Commission later. I am satisfied with the Minister of State's reassurance from a personal point of view. I th…

Yes.

At the outset, because there was a lot of work done in the past few days, I particularly thank the Bills Office. I only learned yesterday - every day is a learning day - that it is the task of the Bills Office to do these listings and it is completely separate from the Minister's office. There is no influence whatsoever between the two departments and that gives us confidence. I did not doubt that, but it is nice to learn that because I thought it was the Seanad Office that was making these decisions. I learnt some…

I move amendment No. 31: In page 23, after line 33, to insert the following: "(9) This Act shall be compliant with the United Nations Convention on Rights of the Child (UNCRC).".

This is where it gets trickier. The Minister of State will be aware that I have spent a lot of time on this. There are two separate amendments, Nos. 31 and 32, but I will combine my comments on them. Amendment No. 31 seeks to ensure that "This Act shall be compliant with the United Nations Convention on Rights of the Child (UNCRC)", which the Minister of State will be aware of. Amendment No. 32, which seeks to review the operations of this legislation, seeks to ensure that "This Act shall be compliant with the Unit…

While I do not have difficulty with some of the sentiment of what the Minister of State said, I have to take issue, respectfully, with her. There is nothing vague about these two amendments. First, they are in plain, simple English. Second, it is not up to me, I am not the Minister of State and do not have the bank of officials behind me to tie up the legislative, legal or parliamentary language. It was very clear what these two amendments say, and they say simply that: "This Act shall be compliant with the United …

I move amendment No. 32: In page 23, after line 33, to insert the following: “(9) This Act shall be compliant with the United Nations Convention Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).”.

A different reason was given on this occasion because it was suggested it was a challenge to the Exchequer. I ask the Acting Chairperson to read the letter issued by the Cathaoirleach's office for the record of the House.

The Acting Chairperson has been provided with a note. I have chaired the Seanad myself and notes are provided for the Cathaoirleach to read into the record when requested. I ask the Acting Chairperson in both cases-----