Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill 2026: Second Stage
Seanad Éireann — 2026-03-26
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Emer Higgins (FG), Dublin Mid-West

I will aim in the five minutes I have to address the issues that were raised by Senators. I thank them for their engagement on this. It is a really important matter and, as Senator Tully said, it is important that we make a decision to approve this legislation today in the interests of wards of court.
Senator Byrne had a concern relating to legal representation. Anyone who has requested free legal aid has got it and everybody has legal representation assigned to them now. That is obviously a really important step because we now need to move through this process and ensure that the 1,000-plus wards of court get to court as soon as possible.
Senator McDowell spoke about the Government's obligation to come back and report to the House. One of the obligations under the 2015 Act is a legal obligation that it be reviewed within the first five years of its introduction. A number of concerns the Senator raised, in particular those around enduring power of attorney, will come in under that review. That review was scheduled to begin next year, but in response to the level of concerns, consultation and feedback from Senators and TDs, the Department is now going to engage in that review earlier than planned and preparations are already under way for that it to commence. We hope to be able to commence it this year.
The Senator referenced the number of solicitors and legal professionals who have difficulties with aspects of this Bill, in particular with the enduring power of attorney. He also asked for the Department to directly engage with the Law Society. Our Department is in continual engagement with the Law Society. The Law Society was present at a consultation on this issue that I attended earlier this month or at the end of last month. We had a discussion at that. The lines of communication are very much open because it is really important that we include all stakeholders in this, including legal representatives and others working in this area.
Most importantly, it concerns the people who are impacted by this, namely, the wards of court, their families, committees, decision-makers and the Decision Support Service. Our series of consultations has been about engaging with them.
In terms of monitoring the specifics of the Act, I can confirm that there is an interdepartmental steering group that meets regularly. It comprises representatives from the Decision Support Service, the Mental Health Commission, the Courts Service, the Legal Aid Board and the Departments of justice and Health, which are key stakeholders in this regard. We will continue to work with them on an ongoing basis.
Senator Murphy O'Mahony described the Bill as transformative change and said it was grounded in autonomy, dignity and the rights of persons with disabilities under the UNCRPD. I wrote that down because I completely agree with that assessment and it is a great way of summarising the intent of the Bill. We now need to ensure that some of the feedback we have received since it was passed is taken into account during the review process and any changes or updates that are required or updates happen.
Senator Tully spoke about the backlog of legal representation. That has now been resolved. It might interest Members to know that additional Courts Service resources have been allocated to this to ensure that we can get through the backlog of cases to which the Senator referred and ensure that people have a timely opportunity to come to court. For that reason, the court is only able to allow extensions to happen in exceptional circumstances. It has to be first proven that there are exceptional circumstances.
Senator Tully had a particular query in regard to minor wards. I reaffirm that the Bill only gives discretion to the High Court to extend in certain circumstances. Having said that, through experience we know minor cases can often be particularly complex. Ultimately, whether one is a minor or an adult, 25 October is not a target date. That is the absolute endpoint in terms of the matter being dealt with. That is why we have not moved the target date of 26 April. That is why we have said the relevant bodies need to go to court and get the special exemption they need in order to have additional time to consider a case. A core reason for that is because we want to keep the pressure and momentum on.
Senator Harmon used the phrase "Nothing about us without us". That is something that we in the Department and I as Minister of State stand by. That is why when we received approval from Cabinet for amendments to the Act, the first thing we did was hold an online consultation on the same day with some of our key stakeholders in the legal sphere. We followed that up with a paper to our disabled persons' organisations and stakeholders who work in that space. We held a consultation with them and have had an in-person consultation. That is core to what we do. It is a core principle of the human rights strategy for disabled people that there is nothing about us without us.
The Senator had a specific query on the phrase "exceptional circumstance". We have left that phrase open to the courts. The reason for that is because we trust the courts to be able to identify an exceptional circumstance, work with the case that is in front of them and, ultimately, to have the discretion to determine how much time can be given as an extension. There is the opportunity for a second extension under this amendment. As I said, the October date is the final cut-off date and only two extensions are allowed. The reason for that is because none of us want to be back in this situation in a year's time and need to ask for further time. We do not want that. We want to be able to support our wards of courts through this process. That is what our consultations and the information being provided from the Decision Support Service is about. That is why wanted to make sure that we did not change the deadline.
We made it difficult for people. They had to request an extension and a judge had to determine that it was in the interests of justice. The reason for that is because we want to keep momentum on this and ensure that our wards of court, as Senator Murphy O'Mahony said, move through the transformative change in order to get more autonomy, dignity and rights under the UNCRPD.

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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