Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I compliment Senator Higgins and her team on the amount of work that they done through this committee in creating not just awareness but a real understanding of the role of the optional protocol, and what is expected of Government and various Departments.

First, the Senator asked whether the decision support services and legislative piece work in tandem or parallel. They work completely in parallel. The decision support services are working away in the background and will be open for business, hopefully, in June 2022. I have always said June 2022 for the opening of the decision support services. I must compliment Ms Áine Flynn and her team, and I must compliment what Mental Health Reform is doing, in terms of this. There is really good work being done in the background on this.

I hope that we will be before a committee very soon to have pre-legislative scrutiny on the legislation that is required.

Some new elements are being introduced in the Bill. These include tweaks to how things will operate to ensure a smooth process. Officials are engaging with the Attorney General on issues in the Departments. We will need to ensure they are in line.

I do not have a date for its ratification of the optional protocol. The June date relates specifically to the decision support service and the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015. I see the Senator shaking her head. I ask her to hold on for two seconds. I have always said the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, and I are happy to ratify this before the UN review of the report. The report is going forward. Professor MacLachlan explained the process really well. The Minister and I are very open to ratifying the optional protocol even before the UN reviews the report. I want to be very clear with the Senator on that. Both Ministers in the Department are completely willing to ensure that happens.