Marie Louise O'Donnell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will make one point about Theresa May. What happened last night was possibly the greatest example of reneging in the history of politics.

I wish to take up what Senator Ardagh said about the nurses. I look around at the nurses on strike, their reasons for doing so, the 262 consultant posts that have not been filled, consultants in Irish hospitals who have not gone through the registered training programme, and the lack of radiographers and occupational therapists. At the same time, I see an overrun of €1.7 billion on the national children's hospital. The two do not compute. There is something very unstable about this situation. I am not blaming anybody but there is something very unbalanced about all of this. The public is getting very tired of it.

I wish to ask the Leader about the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act. I have reached the age of an elder even though I know I look 37. I am very conscious of how we treat our elders. The Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act has not been commenced and there is no reason sections 3 and 8 involving advanced healthcare directives should not be commenced. I would like very much to see that happen because they give effect to the requirements of common law. I know other Senators have worked on this and know the intricacies of this, but the fact that these sections have not been commenced gives rise to inappropriate assessments of older people being carried out based on the medical model which is not the total model and is not the model that should be the end assessment. A person's basic human rights are involved here. Áine Flynn was appointed director of the Decision Support Service in October 2017 and is currently working on setting up her office and putting systems in place. The HSE and the National Disability Association did a lot of work on codes of practice. The codes regarding advanced healthcare directives are at the final stage. However, there seems to be a lack of drive in the Government and Departments. It is now three times since I stood here and spoke for it.

A breach of rights is occurring so I would like some explanation of this. I know there are a lot of problems, but as we age, it involves people's rights. People are being put into nursing homes who do not want to be there. They have rights in those nursing homes. My mother is in a nursing home. I do not want to present myself as a visual aid example but I am very conscious of the elders in Ireland and how we treat them and I wish to see their rights preserved in every way. This needs to come back in and we need to advance it because it is lying around, so to speak. People are in place to do it but it has not been ignited and a certain activity is lacking. Things are happening with regard to Brexit and nurses are out on the street but this is very important. What was interesting was that I saw today how many carers and nurses who deal with the elderly were outside the gates of facilities on Roebuck Road and in other areas where homes operate, so could we please have this commenced or have a discussion about it?