Jillian van Turnhout (Independent) | Oireachtas source

On this grouping of amendments, I am trying to work out the implications and I would not mind being clear. I appreciate that concerns were expressed previously about the placement of the decision support service within the Courts Service. Principally, the concern was that the decision support service would not be sufficiently independent as a component of the Courts Service and there was a question whether its work would be open to scrutiny by the Ombudsman. I am trying to work through why moving the decision support service to the Mental Health Commission will resolve this problem because it places the service within the remit of the Department of Health rather than the Department of Justice and Equality. Since legal capacity matters should probably be regarded as a matter for the Department of Justice and Equality, I question this move. Could this lead to confusion because decision support issues might be confused with mental health issues? Since the remit of the decision support service is much broader than mental health, I wonder about establishing it under the Mental Health Commission.

I would have thought that this function would have been better to be established as an independent authority similar to the National Disability Authority with reporting responsibilities to the Department of Justice and Equality. I imagine it is because the move is being made now on Report Stage that there are questions from those who have not been consulted. There has been extensive consultation on the Bill. We are jumping the last hurdle and I wonder whether this is the right one that we should be jumping. I appreciate the placing of the function in the Courts Service was not right, but I do not know whether we are moving it to the right place. My concerns are echoed by many civil society organisations, persons with disabilities and their representatives. Why are we doing this now when the preference is to have an independent body that would be under the remit of the Department of Justice and Equality? Such an independent body would be more appropriate. It would be more in keeping with the spirit of the Bill. That is where my difficulties lie on this grouping of amendments.