Assisted Decision-Making Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-05 ============================================================ Noel Grealish (IND), Galway West I thank Senator Duffy for raising this important issue. Enduring power of attorney is a vital advance planning tool that enables adults to plan ahead for a time when they may have diminished decision-making capacity, creating a record of a person’s wishes so that they are known and respected. Ensuring that the enduring power of attorney application process is accessible for all individuals is of the utmost importance in encouraging and enabling people to put enduring power of attorney in place. The Decision Support Service has responsibility for the processing and registration of enduring power of attorney under the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015. It has taken a number of steps to improve the enduring power of attorney application process and provide guidance to help people as they make their application. Both the Department and the Decision Support Service have engaged with a wide range of stakeholders to understand experiences of the Act and to identify and address any difficulties that may be arising. In the main, experiences have been extremely positive but action has been taken to address barriers to accessing services and supports where they have arisen. Taking on board feedback, in July 2024 a new accessibility policy was implemented by the Decision Support Service. This includes a dedicated enduring power of attorney help desk service to ensure that individuals who require additional assistance in completing an online enduring power of attorney application are supported in doing so. This enhanced help desk service was introduced to ensure that the application process is as efficient and user-friendly as possible and ensures that anyone in need of assistance at any stage of the application process is supported as necessary, including scenarios in which enduring power of attorney is required urgently. In addition to the help desk, instructional videos and other helpful guidance material on the Decision Support Service website have also been developed. In 2026, the Decision Support Service will launch a dedicated enduring power of attorney one-stop-shop website to help adults plan ahead and make their own enduring power of attorney with confidence, clarity and support. The new website will bring together existing resources onto one accessible and easy-to-use platform which has been designed specifically to bring people on a step-by-step journey through the process of creating enduring power of attorney under the Decision Support Service’s purpose-built digital system. However, the accessibility policy does not preclude the use of manual applications for all applicants. Those who are unable to utilise the online application portal whether due to accessibility or digital literacy reasons are facilitated in making an enduring power of attorney application manually, which ensures that no adult is excluded. As of the end of December 2025, 5,075 enduring powers of attorney were fully registered by the Decision Support Service, with just under 90% of these registrations having taken place since the introduction of the accessibility policy. Encouraging adults to engage in advance planning is central to the work of the Decision Support Service. Enduring powers of attorney have proven to be the most popular type of decision support arrangement to put in place. This is encouraging as it indicates growing awareness of the importance of advance planning and the benefits it can bring when diminished decision-making capacity becomes a reality. The Decision Support Service intends to continue promoting and highlighting the importance of advance planning throughout 2026, having developed useful, easy-to-read and informative material to support all adults to plan ahead. A recent survey carried out by the Decision Support Service indicated that over 75% of adults would make an enduring power of attorney if they had more information and over 30% intend to make enduring power of attorney within three years. The material developed by the Decision Support Service along with its plans to further promote and spread awareness of the services it provides will assist in harnessing those intentions and will provide a clear pathway for people to have their wishes documented and fulfilled should it become necessary. The primary concern of the 2015 Act is to deliver appropriate, safe, rights-based supports and that those wishing to avail of those supports are facilitated in doing so and the steps taken to implement the legislation reflect that. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-02-05/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:35+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-02-05