Catherine Ardagh (Dublin South Central, Fianna Fail)

It is heartwarming to see the cross-party support for the legal profession today.

The Decision Support Service, DSS, is a progressive and long-awaited reform under the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015. It was established to empower people to plan for their future decision-making and to uphold their independence and dignity. However, in practice, the absence of a dedicated solicitors' portal is creating serious barriers for professionals and service users. Solicitors are currently required to log into their clients' personal DSS accounts. The process is cumbersome, time-consuming and raises significant GDPR and cybersecurity issues, as it often involves handling passwords and sensitive personal data for clients. As a result, many solicitors are now reluctant to take on DSS work, which is leaving elderly people and vulnerable adults without access to the very service designed to support them. I ask for a Government commitment to introduce a secure solicitors' portal for the Decision Support Service and to explore establishing DSS kiosks in local libraries and community hubs, with access to computers, printers and scanners to help people to navigate the DSS system. This is particularly important because these arrangements only become relevant when a loved one loses capacity.

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