Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I respectfully disagree with Senator Warfield regarding the rushed nature of this debate. Every week since we began Committee Stage, we have received emails asking when this Bill will be back on the agenda and reminding us of the urgency involved. The most important sections of the 2015 Act were, regrettably, never commenced. There is nothing rushed about the legislation. However, it does contain elements with which we are all uncomfortable and that we wish could be resolved quickly. I am mindful that there is an inherent discrimination within the Bill that I know the Minister has addressed and about which we have had good discussions with him and his officials. There is a cohort of people for whom the advance healthcare directive is going to be not in effect. It is regrettable that we have a situation where people can have capacity put in their advance healthcare directives but that capacity is undermined by other factors at times when they need those wishes to be implemented.

I have heard the Minister all along when he has said that this must be done in tandem with the reform of the Mental Health Act. In recent weeks at the Committee on Disability Matters, various aspects of mental health have been discussed and representatives of Mental Health Reform and others have been before the committee. On each occasion, I have raised the reform of the Mental Health Act and the fact that there is, unfortunately, discrimination within this Bill. At a meeting at one stage, the Minister undertook to write to the Department of Health and find out where it was at. I took away from our most recent interaction that the Minister is sensitive to this aspect to the Bill that cannot be resolved until such time as the primary legislation on mental health has been dealt with.

I was sensitive to and taken by the original telephone calls I had prior to Committee Stage with individuals who spoke about a loss of agency and how horrible it is. They told me how in the making of a complaint thereafter, there is an absolute powerlessness. At the end of the day, there is an inequality of arms when it comes to capacity, perception, recall and everything like that.I can see the role of advanced healthcare directives, AHDs, in that regard.

As we go through the amendments, we will be speaking about the tests that remain within the Bill but there is an inherent discrimination in that element and that will need to be resolved. I hope it will be resolved within the mental health Bill. I urge that we move through this legislation quickly because I am mindful that people are being made wards of court all the time. We desperately need that not to happen any more and to move to the new regime as quickly as possible. Where are we at with all that? Has the Minister heard back from the Department of Health? Does he have any insight in respect of a timeline or where we might be in that regard to help to address the residual discrimination within the Bill?