Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill 2026: Report and Final Stages
Dail Éireann — 2026-03-25
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Ruairí Ó Murchú (SF), Louth

As I said previously, it is vital legislation in the sense that we find ourselves in this place. I could make the argument that we should not have found ourselves in this place. Enough time should have been put aside. I have, once again, put on the record some of the issues and the worries I had. I will commend the interaction that there has been. The big thing for all of us is that idea that we review and make sure we deal with those anomalies that exist where those with a disability who are in disability services and previously could have got a bank account with two signatories, that this has now become at times a near impossibility. In cases, people have gone to the credit union or other institutions to try to work around it, but that is not good enough.
I reiterate that idea that we need to make sure that we have the maximum amount of engagement with the stakeholders, the likes of disability services such as St. John of God's and others, but also good engagement with families and those relations who have been involved in the care of their children, in an awful lot of cases, for all their lives. We need to ensure at the core of it is, in this case, the ward of courts, and then all those people who will fall under this particular bracket. Because we are going through courts, I am always worried about logjams and everything else. We need to make sure we have the adequate resources and that we do not have hold-ups that are not necessary. The big one is about supporting those who need support, but also providing those that have capacity with as much freedom as we possibly can.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-03-25/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:47+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-03-25