Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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154. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality when she will make commencement orders for the remaining sections that fall under her remit of the Assisted Decision Making (Capacity) Act 2015; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16692/17]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015, which provides a modern statutory framework to support decision-making by adults with capacity difficulties, is being commenced on a phased basis.

A number of provisions of the Act were commenced in October 2016 in order to progress the setting up of the Decision Support Service. The Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015 (Commencement of Certain Provisions) Order 2016 (S.I. No. 515 of 2016), brought Part 1 (Preliminary and General) and Part 9 (Director of the Decision Support Service) of the Act, other than sections 3, 4 and 7 in Part 1 and sections 96 and 102 and Chapter 3 in Part 9, into operation on 17 October 2016. These provisions were brought into operation in order to enable the process of recruitment of the Director of the Decision Support Service (DSS) to begin. The recruitment and appointment of the Director of the DSS, and the appointment of DSS staff, is a matter for the Mental Health Commission (a body under the Department of Health) with the approval of the Minister for Health. My Department does not have any statutory function in relation to the recruitment and appointment of the Director.

The commencement of Part 8 of the Act, which provides a legislative framework for advance healthcare directives, is a matter for the Minister for Health.

New administrative processes and support measures, including the setting up of the Decision Support Service within the Mental Health Commission, must be put in place before the substantive provisions of the Act can be commenced. A high-level Steering Group comprised of senior officials from my Department, the Department of Health and the Mental Health Commission is overseeing the establishment and commissioning of the Decision Support Service and this work is ongoing.

It is intended that the key preparations will be put in place during the remainder of this year under the oversight of the Steering Group to allow for commencement orders for the remaining provisions of the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015 that fall under my remit to be made on a carefully phased basis when the Decision Support Service is ready to roll out the new decision-making support options. It is not possible at the moment to provide an exact time line for the finalisation of these commencement orders, not least because we will need to have the Director of the Decision Support Service in place to fully ascertain the timeline. It is expected that the post of Director will be advertised very soon and that the Director will be in place by July.