Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 9:

In page 19, to delete lines 7 and 8 and substitute the following: "(d) fees shall be set in accordance with the relevant person’s means or waived in circumstances as set out by the Director in paragraph (c).".".

I will speak about amendments Nos. 9 and 10 together and then I will speak about amendment No. 15. They all relate to costs. Enormous extra expenses are faced by people with disabilities that are not covered by social welfare programmes. Not all people with disabilities are on social welfare. Many people with disabilities are working. People with disabilities are at a higher risk of poverty. It is important to minimise the costs of the decision-making supports in the Bill, so as not to risk further impoverishment of people with disabilities.

Amendment No. 15 is along the same lines. The donor is a person who makes an enduring power of attorney. This section relates to regulations that the Minister could make, including setting the fees that should be charged. Similar to the thrust of other amendments, I ask that the means of the person are considered when setting fees. The person should always be at the centre of the legislation and the Minister should not be allowed to make regulations on fees without taking a person's means into account. The proposed subsection (e) allows for circumstances in which fees can be waived. Therefore, I recommend that the amendment would be accepted to ensure that this is taken into consideration. Subsection (3) states that the Minister should take into account the need to ensure protection of the assets and funds of the donor. I ask that we would take this a step further and explicitly state that the person's means would also be taken into account.