Results 4,641-4,660 of 9,147 for speaker:Pádraig Mac Lochlainn

Select Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (17 Jun 2015)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: I do not have a hard copy of the list.

Select Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (17 Jun 2015)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: I thank the Chairman for that.

Select Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (17 Jun 2015)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: I am speaking to amendments Nos. 122 and 123. This is in line with recommendations from Mental Health Reform which welcomes the provisions in the Bill regarding co-decision-making and decision-making representatives. In order to protect the independence and integrity of the position of co-decision-makers and decision-making representatives, it is important that the list of persons who...

Select Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (17 Jun 2015)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: I acknowledge the Minister of State's Department has engaged extensively with the NGOs and has taken on board many of their concerns in the new amendments. One of the areas of concern is that the new protections to address the historic mistreatment of people with intellectual disabilities or with mental health difficulties should be extended to people in centres. The concern would be that...

Select Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (17 Jun 2015)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: I am not convinced that the Minister of State has addressed the concerns, so I will press the amendment when we deal with it.

Select Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (17 Jun 2015)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: I appreciate that the Minister has outlined a shared concern about the amendments that I have submitted. She has outlined that her legal advice states that the matter is problematic. I am happy, when we reach the amendments, to withdraw for now. However, I reserve the right to resubmit them on Report Stage. This aspect is something that we could not accept because it would undermine the...

Select Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (17 Jun 2015)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: The amendments submitted by Deputy Anne Ferris have been introduced in response to concerns from a human rights perspective. Does the Minister of State feel she has taken them on board and addressed those concerns?

Select Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (17 Jun 2015)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: The specific concerns we have received are from the centre for disability law and policy in NUI Galway. There is concern about informal decision-makers. The Minister of State might have received similar representations to the Department. Does she feel those concerns have been addressed?

Select Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (17 Jun 2015)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: That is a reasonable offer. Could the Minister's official e-mail both Deputy Keaveney and me to establish contact? As late as yesterday evening I was receiving representations on the matter which suggests there still seems to be a concern. In fairness, the Minister of State has made a very constructive offer to resolve the issue rather than have an argument back and forth now. We will...

Select Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (17 Jun 2015)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: That is fair enough.

Select Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (17 Jun 2015)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: Amendments Nos. 17 to 415 were discussed together. Have all of those amendments been dealt with?

Select Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (17 Jun 2015)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: My concerns relate to amendments Nos. 250 and 252, which are my amendments. Could I speak to them now, if that is in order?

Select Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (17 Jun 2015)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: Amendment No. 250 is in line with recommendations from Mental Health Reform to address the concern in respect of the position of incapacitated but compliant patients who are subjected to informal decision-making. Mental Health Reform considers it imperative that measures would be included in the Bill to protect against the inappropriate and-or persistent use of informal decision-making, in...

Select Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (17 Jun 2015)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: When will the Minister of State introduce amendments to the Mental Health Act?

Select Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (17 Jun 2015)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: I have seen multitudes of legislation in which the Government was able to amend a whole range of Acts at the same time when it wanted to bring forward reform. This makes it possible to consistently apply the new reform and I do not understand why the Minister cannot do everything now to amend the relevant Acts rather than make people wait for what will probably be a considerable length of...

Select Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (17 Jun 2015)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: Often, when we engage with legislation, it involves amending a range of different Acts rather than waiting for an Act to be comprehensively changed because that can take a long, long time. This is a very welcome and long overdue reform of this area but I do not understand why the Minister cannot deal with all the issues that are before her rather than wait for the comprehensive reform of the...

Select Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (17 Jun 2015)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: We are clearly not going to reach a meeting of minds on this but I will be monitoring the situation. The Minister will obviously not accept these amendments and the Bill will proceed but I will monitor closely how long it takes to deliver the reforms she proposes.

Select Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (17 Jun 2015)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: I wish to refer to it when speaking on the section.

Select Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (17 Jun 2015)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: I cannot discuss specifically the two amendments submitted because they have been ruled out of order. This is deeply frustrating. May I discuss them at this point?

Select Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (17 Jun 2015)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: I thank the Chairman and I appreciate his assistance. Will the Minister of State consider addressing the two amendments on Report Stage? Amendment No. 103 relates to legal aid.