Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I will respond to the Deputy. The Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act and the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill are very good examples of why we are doing this. This Act was passed in 2015. I was not here at that time but I still do not understand why that Act was not implemented and in the seven years since, wardship, which is entirely in breach of the principles of the UNCRPD, has continued to exist and people have continued to be wards of court. We know that if we signed up to the UN optional protocol, we would be immediately found in breach of the convention because wardship is so against the UNCRPD, so we are working to resolve the breaches in those key pieces of legislation, where we are in breach.

That is why we have been working very hard to get the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill through. It is going on Report Stage in the Seanad now. Remember, by doing that, we are actually making lives better for people with disabilities. Because we are looking to get ourselves into compliance, something like wardship is finally going to be abolished.

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