Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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The Decision Support Service ("DSS") is responsible for the operation of certain provisions legislated for under the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015 ("the 2015 Act"). This includes the processing of applications in respect of different decision support arrangements under the 2015 Act, in particular applications relating to Enduring Powers of Attorney ("EPAs") and Co-Decision-Making Agreements ("CDMAs").

Commencement of the 2015 Act, along with amending legislation, took place on 26 April 2023, representing a landmark overhaul of our capacity legislation and a move towards a rights based, tiered, and person centred model of supports. The 2015 Act also has the effect of abolishing wardship. Current wards of court will exit wardship following a review of their circumstances by the wardship court, and may transition to new decision support arrangements under the 2015 Act.

Since the Act came into force a total of 1386 decision support arrangement applications have been lodged with the DSS, as per the following table. The monthly breakdown of these supports is as follows:

Month	Total	EPA	CDMA	DMAA	DMRO
April 2023 (inclusive from 26/04/2023 – 30/04/2023)	0	0	0	0	0
May 2023	5	1	2	2	0
June 2023	12	10	1	1	0
July 2023	32	23	5	2	2
August 2023	69	37	3	5	24
September 2023	100	62	10	4	24
October 2023	125	100	7	4	14
November 2023	138	116	7	3	12
December 2023	128	96	4	3	25
January 2024	151	119	5	6	21
February 2024	221	163	10	7	41
March 2024	271	183	5	5	78
April 2024 (inclusive to 17/04/2024)	134	86	4	2	42
Total	1386	996	63	44	283

LEGEND:

• EPA = enduring power of attorney
• CDMA= co-decision-making agreement
• DMAA = decision-making assistance agreement
• DMRO = decision-making representation order made by the court.

A total of 421 applications have been approved by the DSS, as per the following table.

Month	Total	EPA	CDMA	DMAA	DMRO
April 2023 (inclusive from 26/04/2023 – 30/04/2023)	0	0	0	0	0
May 2023	0	0	0	0	0
June 2023	1	0	0	1	0
July 2023	4	2	0	0	2
August 2023	19	3	1	2	13
September 2023	25	0	3	1	21
October 2023	18	2	1	1	14
November 2023	40	20	3	1	16
December 2023	33	11	2	3	17
January 2024	40	26	0	0	14
February 2024	88	34	2	9	43
March 2024	107	44	3	2	58
April 2024 (inclusive to 17/04/2024)	46	25	1	0	20
Total	421	167	16	20	218

Following submission for registration, a statutory 5-week notice period for objections applies to both EPAs and CDMAs. Before registering a CDMA or EPA, the DSS is required to undertake a review to include examination of any objections received and to ensure compliance with the statutory requirements and the eligibility and suitability of the co-decision-maker or attorney(s) among other matters. These are important safeguarding measures.

The DSS is responsible for registering but does not ‘approve’ Decision-Making Representative Orders (DMROs) which are valid when issued by the court. DMROs are notified to the DSS by the court for the DSS to enter on its register. The breakdown of DMRO figures is based on the date a case for the Order was created by the DSS for the purposes of registration. The Courts Service holds more detailed data on the number of DMROs applications that have been made to the courts.