Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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329. To ask the Minister for Health his plans to bring forward proposals to allow for a nominated person that is part of an unmarried cohabiting couple to make decisions with regard to medical treatment for their partner in instances in which an advance healthcare directive has been provided; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48036/17]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Part 8 of the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015, which has yet to be fully commenced, provides a legislative framework for advance healthcare directives (AHDs). An AHD is a statement made by a person with capacity setting out his or her will and preferences regarding treatment decisions that may arise in the future when he or she no longer has capacity.

Part 8 of the Act also provides a mechanism through which an adult with capacity (i.e. the directive-maker) may nominate in his or her AHD a legal representative to be involved in the healthcare decision-making process on his or her behalf if he or she was to subsequently lose capacity. This nominee is known as the designated healthcare representative.

The Act includes specific provisions outlining the functions and scope of authority of a designated healthcare representative. For example, if a directive-maker so wishes, he or she could use his or her AHD to give the designated healthcare representative, the authority to consent to and/or refuse medical treatment on the directive-maker's behalf.

Under section 91 of the Act, which was commenced on 17 October 2016, I established a multidisciplinary working group to prepare a detailed series of recommendations for the Director of the Decision Support Service, in relation to a code of practice for the AHD provisions. The Director will subsequently prepare a code of Practice and will submit it to me for my approval and, with my consent, the Director will then publish the code of practice. The preparation of the code of practice will facilitate the subsequent commencement of Part 8 of the Act, pertaining to AHDs, in its entirety.