Sinn Féin spokesperson on mental health, Mark Ward TD, has welcomed the publishing of the long-awaited Mental Health Bill, which will reform the Mental Health Act of 2001, but has criticized the Government’s lack of urgency.

The Dublin Mid-West TD, speaking ahead of the Bill being debated in the Dáil later today, has pointed out the consequence of this delay.

Teachta Ward said:

“The Mental Health Bill was finally published over the summer. The delay in publishing the Bill means that it will not be introduced in the lifetime of this Government and the legislation may not be enacted for years. This has undeniable consequences for people in need of mental health supports.

“The government has always lacked urgency for mental health. We are now 13 years since a review was called for updating this legislation. We had three years of Simon Harris as Minister for Health where this Bill was not introduced.

“We have seen the crisis in CAMHS go from bad to worse under this Government. Waiting lists have nearly doubled for first time appointments. There have been damning reviews into CAMHS, namely the Maskey report and the Mental Health Commission’s independent review. The latter called for the regulation of CAMHS.

“While this Bill does legislate to regulate CAMHS, we simply cannot wait on this Bill to pass through the Oireachtas as it could take years. I introduced legislation in February this year, which had a time delay imposed by the Government that was due to pass in November. The Government does not understand the urgency of this. CAMHS needs to be regulated immediately.

“Another failure of this Bill for children is that it doesn’t legislate to ban admitting children to adult inpatient psychiatry wards. The number of children being admitted to adult wards is reducing but we should be aiming for it to be zero. I will be making amendments to this Bill calling for zero tolerance for children being placed in adult psychiatric facilities.

“Human Rights groups have been calling for an independent complaints mechanism for mental health service users. This is in line with international best practice. The Government has not included this in the Bill. I think this, again, speaks to the fact that the Government does not understand or have not listened to families and specialists. This must be corrected.

“This Bill, when amended, will be the first step in delivering person centric care for mental health, but more needs to be done to fund our services. I have published Sinn Féin’s Mental Health Action Plan which sets out our ambition for mental health services when in Government. We understand the importance and certainty of a fully costed plan, both for services users and for staff. Sinn Féin will deliver for mental health.”