Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for her address yesterday in the context of the briefing in the audiovisual room on the National Gender Service. Representatives of transgender people and individuals affected were grateful for her position on that. It has nothing to do with this meeting but I thank her for that.

I also commend her on the incredible work that has been carried out by her Department, for the budget, for the commitment she shows in her work to people who are suffering in the areas of mental health, to reforms and to home care. The Government has provided tremendous support in this area, led by the Minister of State, Deputy Butler.

My questions cover two areas. The first relates to recruitment. It is one of the big impediments to the roll-out of home care and keeping people in familiar surroundings in their home and close to everything they have lived with. For people facing dementia and other disabilities at an advanced age, being supported and surrounded by things that are familiar is important. However, one of the impediments to the delivery of home care is recruitment. The Minister of State has spoken about - and it also crosses into the Minister of State, Deputy Damien English's, Department and he has also worked on this - extending permits to outside the EU in this area. It is essential that be advanced.

One thing I will raise for her information is that I know of many people who have the qualifications within their own countries but when they apply to Ireland, they may need to complete one module of a Quality and Qualifications Ireland, QQI, course to qualify at level 5 or level 6. People cannot get a personal public service number, PPSN, unless they are living in Ireland and they cannot do the course to get the qualification unless they have a PPSN. They cannot do QQI courses online without one. Perhaps that could be looked at. For example, we could give people a grandparenting oversight or something like that when they arrive. It is essential we extend our workforce in this area.

The second area I will raise with the Minister of State is assisted decision-making. I note Mr. Brunell is accompanying her. There have been meetings and I am receiving daily emails from people who are anxious about the fact that the Assisted Decision Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill is not on the Seanad schedule. I ask Mr. Brunell to repeat the confirmation and commitment that it will return to the Seanad soon, that any matters that need to be sorted out are being addressed and that we can expect the legislation to be put on the schedule as soon as possible. I value the meeting I was allowed to attend and the discussion during it. Hearing directly from Mr. Brunell and others present at the meeting about how this would work was incredibly helpful.

One area of the Assisted Decision Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill relates to advance healthcare directives and people with mental health issues. There are circumstances when their right to an advance healthcare directive is suspended and set aside. Part of the implementation of that is dependent on the Mental Health Act being reformed. Those two things need to happen in tandem and they must happen quickly. I ask the Minister of State whether she has any comments on that, for example whether she has an idea of timelines and whether she is contributing to the process. It is important that we have reform. A report of the Mental Health Commission a number of weeks ago contained frightening statistics about restricted practices and approved centres. There is a need for overhaul. It is important.