Enacted Stage in the legislative process — click for what it means 66/2024 Official bill number / year
Mental Health Bill 2024
- Sponsor
- Minister for Health
- Introduced
- 31 Jul 2024
- Last updated
- 13 May 2026
What this bill does AI · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001
- Replaces Mental Health Acts 2001–2022 with new framework establishing human rights-based guiding principles for admission, treatment, and discharge of adults and children in acute mental health centres.
- Creates Mental Health Review Boards to review involuntary admissions; requires informed consent for treatment except limited circumstances; regulates restrictive practices (seclusion, restraint) under strict conditions.
- For children: allows voluntary admission under 16 with parental consent; requires District Court orders for involuntary admission; prohibits electro-convulsive therapy on children; establishes Mental Health Commission oversight.
Stage timeline What do these stages mean?
- First Stage 33rd Dáil31 Jul 2024
- Second Stage 33rd Dáil19 Sep 2024
- Committee Stage 34th Dáil10 Jun 2025
- Report Stage 34th Dáil9 Jul 2025
- Fifth Stage 34th Dáil9 Jul 2025
- Committee Stage 27th Seanad24 Sep 2025
- Second Stage 27th Seanad24 Sep 2025
- Cream List 34th Dáil16 Apr 2026
- Report Stage 27th Seanad16 Apr 2026
- Fifth Stage 27th Seanad16 Apr 2026
- Cream List 34th Dáil29 Apr 2026
- Enacted7 May 2026
Debates
- From the Seanad 29 Apr 2026
- Report and Final Stages 16 Apr 2026
- Committee Stage (Resumed) 29 Jan 2026
- Committee Stage (Resumed) 28 Jan 2026
- Committee Stage (Resumed) 22 Jan 2026
- Committee Stage (Resumed) 20 Jan 2026
- Committee Stage (Resumed) 17 Dec 2025
- Committee Stage (Resumed) 10 Dec 2025
- Committee Stage (Resumed) 9 Dec 2025
- Committee Stage 2 Dec 2025
- Second Stage 24 Sep 2025
- Report and Final Stages 9 Jul 2025
- Committee Stage (Resumed) 25 Jun 2025
- Committee Stage (Resumed) 18 Jun 2025
- Committee Stage 11 Jun 2025
- Second Stage (Resumed) 19 Sep 2024
- Second Stage 18 Sep 2024
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