Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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119. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he will provide the details concerning his engagement with disabled persons' organisations concerning the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill 2022. [56957/22]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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The Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015 (the 2015 Act) is an important piece of legislation that represents significant legal reform. It changes the existing law on capacity from the status approach of the wardship system to a flexible functional approach, whereby capacity is assessed on an issue and time-specific basis.

The Act will abolish the wards of court system for adults by repealing the Lunacy Regulation (Ireland) Act 1871. Adults currently in wardship will transition to the new decision-making support arrangements on a phased basis over 3 years from the date of commencement.

Following pre-legislative scrutiny by the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, work has moved quickly on the finalisation of the Bill. Given the Government's commitment to the commencement of the 2015 Act, and the seven year period in which the Act has been eagerly anticipated, the focus of this work has been to move to commencement as son as possible.

It should be noted that, whilst it is significant in terms of procedural and safeguarding improvements, the Amendment Bill does not deviate from the essential policy positions of the 2015 Act. In that regard, careful attention has been given to discourse and commentary on both the Bill and the original 2015 Act, which has stretched back to the time of the formation of the original Act itself, and for which significant consultations were undertaken.

A consultation process took place towards the end of 2021 and start of 2022 on the codes of practice that will accompany the commencement of the Act. This was a public consultation to which all persons and organisations, including disabled persons organisations (DPOs) had the opportunity to contribute. Additionally there has been regular engagement between the Department and disability groups in various fora, which has facilitated input on Assisted Decision-Making legislation.

Whilst not a full consultation, discussion on the progress of the legislation has taken place over the course of the year with members of the Disability Stakeholder Group (DSG) at my Department's Disability Consultative Committee meetings, and also with the wider DSG at a meetings of the full National Disability Inclusion Strategy Steering Group. The DSG is a voluntary group that oversees implementation of the National Disability Inclusion Strategy and provides input to wider government disability policy. It is comprised of individuals and groups with experience of disability issues, whether lived experience, professional or academic expertise, advocacy or civil society experience, or as representatives of disabled person's organisations (DPOs).

A high-level Steering Group comprising senior officials from my Department, the Department of Justice, the Department of Health, the Mental Health Commission, the Courts Service and the HSE, together with the Director of the Decision Support Service , has overseen the preparations for commencement of the Act and these officials have also engaged with various bodies and stakeholders in relation to Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act.