Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill 2026: Report and Final Stages
Dail Éireann — 2026-03-25
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Emer Higgins (FG), Dublin Mid-West

On Deputy O'Rourke's question, the Department briefed IHREC on the proposed amendments in advance of taking the legislation through the Houses.
In the context of Deputy Quaide’s question on resourcing, the decision support services received an uplift in their budget this year for that reason. We trust that the services will use that money accordingly.
We all agree that consultation is the name of the game here. That is something the Department has done. When we first got Cabinet approval for thism we immediately went out and consulted with key stakeholders. We did that online and in person. We had a key consultation meeting earlier this month in relation to this Bill.
Some of the issues that were raised related to the parameters of financial agreements. Ultimately, a number of people stated that they thought there should be better support from a financial perspective. That is something we are taking on board. I have written to the Minister for Finance to see if there is any support he can provide to people in this situation and to the committees going forward.
We are on the same page when it comes to consultation. That is why we will be starting our consultation on the review of the legislation ahead of schedule. As I said, preparatory work has already been done and we will be starting that later this year.

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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