Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill 2026: Committee and Remaining Stages
Seanad Éireann — 2026-03-26
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Michael McDowell (IND), National University of Ireland

I agree with Senators Conway and Byrne in relation to this matter. I thank the Minister of State and her officials for bringing this legislation before the House. To echo what Senator Tully said, the emergency aspect of this could have been foreseen.
The problems which are there with enduring powers of attorney are real. The result of those problems is that enduring power of attorney arrangements are not being entered into. Solicitors are simply saying, "No, Thanks. I am not doing that work.", or "Sorry, it is €3,000 or €5,000 to do that." The point I want to make is that if you sat down with an expert and they devised as many obstacles to the making of an ordinary will as have been put in place for the making of an enduring power of attorney, we would have no wills in this country either. We would have intestacies all over the place. I make that point in order to differ slightly from Senator Conway. We do not have three, four or five years to do this. It should be done in the next 12 months, because the problems are there.
There is no massive conflict of interest here. It is not as if solicitors want to impede their clients from entering into enduring power of attorney arrangements, but there is a very definite set of obstacles that they are encountering and that affect not them so much as their clients. This will lead to disputes, injustices and exploitation of people who are suffering from mental disabilities. Such people can be exploited. The presence of enduring power of attorney is a service as well for people who anticipate that their intellectual capacity is going to go into decline.
I urge the Minister of State to accelerate the process and to come back here within a year. Otherwise, a bright and enterprising Senator such as Senator Byrne will produce a Private Members' Bill to remedy the problems that exist. It would be embarrassing for the Government to have to decline to accept such a Bill.

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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