Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill 2026: Committee and Remaining Stages Seanad Éireann — 2026-03-26 ============================================================ Martin Conway (IND), Administrative Panel I had hoped to speak on Second Stage, but it ran a little quicker than I expected. I welcome the Minister of State. What Senator McDowell has proposed, which is coming from the legal side, makes a lot of sense. I am sure the Minister of State will work around it to come up with a resolution that is favourable. I was in the House in 2015 when the legislation was the subject of a significant debate. Some who were in the House at that point but who are no longer Members made invaluable contributions in respect of the legislation. Of course, as with a lot of legislation, there are often unintended consequences. The 12-month extension that is proposed here makes a lot of sense. The feedback I have received from solicitors in my constituency is that there is a lot more involved in the legislation regarding wards of court than was the case previously, and for good reason. That said, regarding the review that Senator McDowell spoke about, one Standing Order that is flagrantly not adhered to in either House is that relating to the early review of legislation. Through no fault of any Minister, but through the fault of every Minister, such reviews just do not happen. That is something the Oireachtas, as an institution, needs to look at. With regard to the target date of 26 April, having to go to court to get the extension will cause headaches for many people. I urge the Minister of State to find some way to address this, perhaps on Report Stage. Overall, we could describe this as emergency legislation. That is what it is, and for good reason. However, we need to look at the unintended consequences and the bureaucracy involved. This notion of having to consult all family members ahead of a ward of court hearing is causing problems. These are issues that need to be looked at. I am conscious that this is an amendment. I had hoped to bring up these issues on Second Stage, but did not get to do so. I just wanted to put them on the record. --- 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