Results 6,201-6,220 of 11,744 for speaker:Roderic O'Gorman

Seanad: Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (28 Sep 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: These amendments will allow for the undertaking of court reporting and research under Part 5. A regulation-making power is being provided for certain classes of persons to make reports on proceedings taking place under Part 5. The necessary access to proceedings will be provided and the identity of a person will be kept confidential in such reporting. This point was raised as an Opposition...

Seanad: Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (28 Sep 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: I take Senator Seery Kearney's points. In the first instance, this legislation will necessitate significant engagement of the Judiciary, primarily because a significant panel of judges will be involved in moving people from wardship to the new DSS. This will take a significant amount of work. There has already been some engagement with the courts on preparing for this. It is not for the...

Seanad: Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (28 Sep 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: The Senators have spoken to a wider problem that has emerged in the existing wardship system. I recognise the genuine and legitimate concerns they are raising. I understand the intention of the amendment for the reasons I am about to set out. I do not believe is not necessary because we have provision in the legislation that addresses much of what Senator Clonan said. Section 38(5) and...

Seanad: Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (28 Sep 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: I will let Senator Clonan come in first.

Seanad: Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (28 Sep 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: It was probably not helpful of me to have made a general point on that issue in the context of quite a specific thing, so I accept what Senators Seery Kearney and Mullen say about the general point about a changing approach versus this specific situation. As for this specific situation, and from my read of the amendment and where it is proposed to locate it, it seems to bring the court into...

Seanad: Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (28 Sep 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: Amendments Nos. 20 to 22, inclusive, extend the capping of decision-making representative fees to all decision-making representative arrangements under Part 5 of the principal Act. Previous amendments provided for the capping of panel members' decision-making representative fees. This amendment will ensure limits are imposed in respect of all decision-making representative fees....

Seanad: Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (28 Sep 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: These amendments provide that enduring powers of attorney executed under the Powers of Attorney Act 1996 may continue to be registered under the 1996 Act or the 2015 Act where what I refer to as a transitional wardship application has been made. This refers to a scenario in which a person has been the subject of a wardship application at the time of commencement of the 2015 Act and that...

Seanad: Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (28 Sep 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: This issue was discussed at some length in the Dáil. There are two different perspectives on it. While I understand, as a result of that discussion, the rationale for the amendment, the provisions the amendment seeks to delete are important, in my view, from the perspective of legal clarity. The 2015 Act was reviewed in detail in the process of preparing the amendment Bill. Legal...

Seanad: Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (28 Sep 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: My response is similar to the points I made in response to Senator Warfield. When the 2015 Act was being reviewed there was a real concern, particularly on the part of the HSE, about who would have the power to make the final healthcare decisions in the event of a conflict arising. Notwithstanding the Senator's effort to address that through having a solicitor certify something, the real...

Seanad: Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (28 Sep 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: I understand where Senator Mullen is coming from but we are trying not to have an "either-or" scenario. We are trying to ensure there is no question that where medical practitioners face critical situations and have put before them an EPA and an advance healthcare directive, they will know the legislation is moving away from that situation and only one document will guide medical...

Seanad: Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (28 Sep 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: Senator Mullen is correct that the EPA gives much wider latitude in terms of those decisions. The concern at play here is that, for the healthcare practitioner, that degree of specificity is really important and that is provided for through the mechanism of the advance healthcare directive. The preference is that the advance healthcare directive is used because, rather than, as the Senator...

Seanad: Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (28 Sep 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: The reason behind the change being made here was to give the relevant person more autonomy. The new role for registration with the DSS rather than with the court will be less costly and should be easier to process than is the case under the current system. The two-stage nature means that for as long as the relevant person has capacity, he or she is in a position to influence or change the...

Seanad: Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (28 Sep 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: Amendment No. 39, along with some technical amendments, provides for additional provisions in respect of the maintaining of a register of AHDs by the decision support service. My colleague, the Minister for Health, will have a regulation-making power to establish and maintain a register of AHDs which will be subject to new provisions provided by this amendment. The provisions specify what...

Seanad: Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (28 Sep 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: The central issue is that the law is not clear in terms of the ability of 16- and 17-year-olds to overrule their legal guardians. That is an unclear part of our law in regard to a wide range of areas. The issue is wider than what we are considering in this Chamber. Senator Ruane alluded to the many complex situations in which this arises. I have my own view about where the balance should...

Seanad: Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (28 Sep 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: From my officials' engagement with the Department of Justice, I think there are ad hocsituations in which individual types of healthcare, dental practice and so on allow for the consent to treatment but there is no clear legal right for a 16- or 17-year-old to refuse treatment in a situation where that is contrary to the view of a parent or guardian. That is the central issue here.