Ms Kate Frowein:

The Deputy asked an interesting question. It is important to point out that the DSS is a totally new and novel service so there is no national data on the number of people who might need or benefit from our services. To repeat what Ms Flynn said earlier, there is no assumption that persons who are currently in receipt of certain services or have a diagnosis would immediately fall into the services of the Decision Support Service, or be presumed as needing those services.

Having said that, we have been looking extensively at potential people who may benefit from our services. We think that there could be between 15,000 and 20,000 people who could benefit from some of the top-tier services but, again, we would not see them immediately being subject to a court order.

It is one of the guiding principles that there would only be an intervention when it is necessary. There is a decision that needs to be made and a trigger to bring that into play. Based on our estimates, we think it could be around 1,500 to 2,000 people that would be in court each year and that there may be an order in respect of their capacity and in requiring the appointment of a decision-making representative. That would be around the top tier but there would be a much broader cohort of people who would benefit from other supports like the co-decision-making agreement or a decision-making assistance agreement.