Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael)
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516. To ask the Minister for Health if his Department is working on the implementation of the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [59961/21]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth has overall policy responsibility for the Assisted Decision Making (Capacity) Act 2015, with the exception of Part 8 of the Act, which is the responsibility of my Department.

Part 8 of the Act 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. Work under Part 8 involves the preparation of draft codes of practice by a multidisciplinary working group, previously established, and submission of the draft codes to the Decision Support Service (DSS), following which a public consultation on the draft codes is to take place. The Director of the DSS has recently commenced this consultation. Once this process is complete, the final codes of practice can be published by the Director with my consent, in accordance with the process outlined in the Act. The Codes, when published, will assist stakeholders in implementing the provisions of Part 8.