Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill 2026: Committee and Remaining Stages
Seanad Éireann — 2026-03-26
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Martin Conway (IND), Administrative Panel

Like the Minister of State, I am very pleased that the House came together, as it often does on legislation that matters to people and families in this country.
I am not a member of the disability matters committee, but perhaps this is work that it has commenced. There are sections of the 2015 Act that need to be reviewed. We we discuss Bills, it is difficult to identify all of the possible consequences in theory. Sometimes there are none. More often than not, however, there are. When an Act becomes operational, there are consequences. There are families who would not necessarily all agree. The need to consult all children and other family members is certainly an issue.
I am convinced that the area of wards of court and the legal elements relating to it can be streamlined. Having engaged with many families, I am aware that the technical and bureaucratic nature of things, the time delays involved even when there is full agreement and the technicalities that arise can be daunting. There are other matters that I could talk about. Again, perhaps, I might do so at a different forum. There is capacity over the next three or four years to review and improve the 2015 Act. Our job is to improve legislation in a timely way. For many reasons, with the advancement in technology, care, etc., after ten years, elements of legislation can be obsolete and elements of it can be improved upon. Our job is to reflect what has happened in the meantime and to bring forward amending legislation. I urge the Minister of State, if she is not doing so already, to make space in her calendar to look at doing that.

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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