Ms Áine Flynn:

Yes. Powers of attorney have been around since an Act of 1996 and under the old Act, there was a different process. When an enduring power of attorney, EPA, was made, nothing needed to happen with it involving a public service at that stage. It was only at the point where the person making the EPA, called the donor, who had lost capacity, that the attorney appointed by them would then make an application to the Office of Wards of Court for what was then called the registration of that EPA. As a requirement under Part 7 of the Act, as amended, when an EPA is executed now, it is sent to the DSS for review and registration. We have the responsibility to check that it is compliant and that it meets certain other standards before it is registered on a searchable register. The second stage involves us as well. We hope this would not happen, but should the donor then lose capacity, because we have gone through that detailed review at the first stage, it is a return trip to us.

There is no requirement to go to court any more in respect of that document. This is called notification. The attorney is then able to step up and make the decisions. The Deputy mentioned the role of solicitors in it. They could be involved in one of two ways. First, somebody may choose to instruct a solicitor in respect of the whole application end to end, and that is true in about 12% of cases. Most people are engaging directly with us in order to make their EPA. Where they are involving a solicitor, we engage with the solicitor. The Law Society has published guidance around how to interact with the system.