Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is extraordinary that we are dealing in part with 19th century legislation and with the fact that only part of the 2015 Act was implemented. It is frustrating that our ability to update legislation in good time seems to be very limited. Approximately ten years ago, the current Attorney General undertook a massive amount of work in trying to eliminate all pre-1922 legislation from the Statute Book. It is absolutely amazing that there is still legislation from that era. I do not know if there is any left but he had certainly been driving forward the efforts to eliminate it completely. As we see here, we still have a bit left. The writ for pre-Independence legislation, passed by the Parliament in Westminster, still runs in this country. It is not wrong because it was done then but it is dated. When we get to 1922, we need to do another round and look at all of the older legislation to see if it is fit for purpose. When one looks at the terminology, one sees how dated it is.

I remember my first direct experience of assisted decision making. A person came into my office and was very upset that their daughter, who is intellectually disabled, was not able to make decisions for herself even though she very much had her own mind because the 2015 legislation had not been implemented. I utterly agreed with her. It was at that point that I started taking a real interest, albeit not a very detailed interest in the issue. One of the problems with this House is that the hours of the day do not allow one to be totally engaged in every issue that comes in but I am pleased that a Bill is before the Dáil that deals with a lot of the issues here. Maybe it does not deal with all of the issues but at least a Bill is now before the Dáil that will make the 2015 legislation fully effective. We will then be in line with the UNCRPD. It is great that we are putting an end to the wards of court system. I do not think this is something to be decided in court, except in extremis. The day-to-day operation is much better with the DSS.

We must talk about legislation as a dynamic. If in two or three years unforeseen consequences have arisen in the context of this Bill or provisions that are not working, I cannot see why we cannot expedite introducing amending legislation. It is very hard to get it perfect all of the time. Until we actually operate something, it is sometimes impossible to know if there will be unforeseen consequences. It is the actual operation and how it really works for real people on the ground that counts with me. It is not the theory of the law but whether it is good legislation that serves well in practice. I remember reading that the Brehon laws might look very strange but they had one great value, namely, they were respected by the people. The people of those times followed Brehon law because it was their law and was reasonable to them. We need to consider law as a dynamic and not as something that will be in place forever or that has no flaws.

A very valid point was made about decision making for people who are confined under the Mental Health Act. I am sure the Minister or Minister of State will explain the details of why this is not included. This is why we have two Chambers here and why it is good that we did not abolish the Senate. It is good to go through Bills twice in the Houses and tease out issues. Sometimes concerns people raise, because of the intricacies of the law, are found not to be so concerning as originally thought. In other cases, there are real concerns and Bills can be amended. I expect a very robust debate on that issue. I expect that the Committee Stage debate will be quite detailed.

A Minister might decide that there are issues to be dealt with which have much wider ramifications and that we need a third Bill do to that. He or she might determine it is best to get this amount, 80% or 90%, of the issue covered. These are issues that we will all have to listen to in the coming weeks because one thing is certain, this is 100 years too late. In the shorter term, it is seven years too late. There comes a time when one has to get on with what is there while not closing the door to further change. One must consolidate the progress and move forward. Many of us had the experience in this House, including the Leas-Ceann Comhairle, of debating the Official Languages (Amendment) Bill and not being 100% happy with the progress we made. However, we were a lot happier than we would have been had there been no progress. We saw it as a work in progress and not as the final destination. I see this legislation in the same terms. This is a work in progress. We need to keep building on this and building on people's rights. We need to get the balance right. All of us in our constituency work have seen the tricky balances involved in human relationships, in issues of capacity and so on.

I was very impressed when I listened to the director of the DSS on the radio yesterday. She gave a very good explanation of the intricacies of this process. There can be assisted decision making in certain facilities and in other parts of people's lives, they make their own decisions totally. Parts of this are quite subtle. No doubt those who will have the privilege of attending all of the committee meetings - unfortunately, given my schedule, I will not be able to do so - will be able to tease out all of these issues in detail.

I welcome the Bill and I hope it is passed. More importantly, I hope it is fully implemented in an expeditious manner. I also hope that the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, and Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, will give a firm undertaking that if there are further issues to be dealt with, it will not be another seven years before we are back in the House to deal with them.

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