Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Report Stage
Seanad Éireann — 2022-11-29
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Mary Seery Kearney (FG), Nominated by the Taoiseach

I can understand the concerns on this point. I went over and back on this. Maybe it comes from decisions of the High Court. They tend to go on and make statements that sometimes seem irrelevant or unnecessary or involve an additional underscoring of a situation. This feels like it is underscoring the inherent jurisdiction of the High Court. It removes the necessity of interpretation when decisions need to be made urgently and someone's liberty is in question and ensures there is no need for a hearing on the interpretation of the legislative drafters. I contented myself with this section on that basis. It makes for a more expeditious hearing, if one is needed, on the basis that there was no intention of the legislative drafters to ever remove the High Court. It appears to reiterate something that we all know but it is an important point of clarity.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2022-11-29/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:51:20+00:00
Sitting date: 2022-11-29