Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill 2026: Second Stage Seanad Éireann — 2026-03-26 ============================================================ Michael McDowell (IND), National University of Ireland I welcome the Minister of State to the House and congratulate her on her appointment. Following on from the last contribution, undoubtedly the 2015 Act was well intentioned, modernising and getting rid of the stigma of lunacy and the like that existed under Victorian wards of court legislation. I understand all of that. I also understand that it introduced a tiered approach to incapacity and that it purported to be rights-based. Having said all that, I do have to tell the Minister of State a couple of things. First, as we discussed here yesterday and as the Minister, Deputy Jim O'Callaghan found out at first hand the day before, there is an obligation on Ministers who sponsor any legislation to come back a year later and to inform this House by depositing a report under Standing Order 204 of the Dáil and Standing Order 179 of the Seanad, as to how the implementation has actually gone. Most Ministers and Departments do not know that but the Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan has said he is going to comply with that obligation in future. I urge the same on the Minister of State's Department. The reason I do so is that when an Act as groundbreaking as the 2015 Act comes into effect, it is hugely important that it is not just put up on the shelf there as an achievement in the Department but that it is immediately monitored as to how it is actually working. Any solicitor acting with a general practice, particularly a smaller solicitor's practice, is becoming increasingly frightened of the enduring power of attorney procedure. It is too difficult and troublesome to comply with. If you think of the hours you have to put into setting up an enduring power of attorney, you have to charge fees, and then people suddenly say that they had thought it was a simple thing, like making a will. It is not. The process is immensely difficult. The time has come for the Minister of State's Department to simplify the procedures and make them easier and less demanding, especially for solicitors, who have all the best intentions for their clients. They do not want to turn away clients who are family members and the like but they equally now shudder when an enduring power of attorney request is made of them. The Minister of State should know that. This is not profitable work; it is difficult, hard work for solicitors and can go so badly wrong that many of them would prefer not to do it at all. That is reflected in the fact that a small number of solicitors rather than a large number right across the country are doing this kind of work. In terms of availability of assistance, that is a problem. Second, I was conscious of this and I contacted the Law Society and asked it for its views. It suggested a number of amendments, most of which have been ruled out of order here. I accept that the Bill has a very narrow focus and is an emergency Bill, but the time has come for the Minister of State's Department to engage with the Law Society and ask what is wrong with the present process that people are afraid to avail of the remedies that are there. To give the Minister of State an example, the obligation on somebody contemplating enduring power of attorney to notify all of their children is offensive to many people. It is a private matter for them and not the business of all of their children. They may have difficult children and supportive children. We have said they have to tell everybody, so you have to have a row in the family to get the whole process going. That simply cannot be right. I know it was enacted with the best of intentions that nobody would be left out and that it would not be done secretly or whatever, but there is such a thing as the privacy of the person facing a disability. I recognise the necessity of the Minister of State's Bill, but she should not think that it solves the problems. There are wider problems. I very much welcome the remarks made in her speech that she will engage with all of the stakeholders because there is a job of work to be done to make sure that the 2015 Act does not in fact have the counterproductive effect of scaring people away from remedies that should be widespread. --- 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/2026-03-26/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:47+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-03-26