Written answers
Wednesday, 22 January 2025
Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth
Assisted Decision-Making
Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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1190. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to review matters (details supplied) regarding the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015; to provide clarity on these three specific questions regarding same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46778/24]
Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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The Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (ADMC) Act 2015 establishes a new legal framework for supported decision-making in Ireland.
The Act replaces the system of wardship and introduces a new system of tiered-decision support arrangements to suit the needs of adults who need support in making decisions and to guarantee that they can maintain decision-making power and control over their own affairs to the maximum extent possible. It also provides for people who wish to plan ahead for a time in the future when they might lose capacity to make an advance healthcare directive, or enduring power of attorney.
Under the ADMC a person is initially presumed to have capacity and their will and preference guide all interventions under the Act. In a situation where a person’s capacity is in question, capacity assessments are performed by professionals who place safeguarding, the presumption of capacity, and the will and preference of the person being supported, as key parts of these assessments. Depending on the individual circumstances of a case, and the will and preference of the person in question, the decision supporter appointed may or may not always be a family member but will always be someone suited to the role who can assist the person being supported in making their own decisions and exercising their own legal capacity.
The Act sets out a tiered system of decision support arrangements, based on the specific needs of the person being supported. This can include Decision Making Assistance arrangements, Co-Decision Making arrangements, or the appointment of a Decision Making Representative. The specific process for appointing a decision supporter depends on the type of decision support arrangement in question.
Applications for a Decision Making Assistant or Co-Decision Making arrangement are managed by the Decision Support Service (DSS), which will ensure that arrangements are proper and will assess applications against the processes and safeguards set out in the Act.
Appointment of a Decision-Making Representative is done by application to the Circuit Court, and the Court must be satisfied that the arrangement is appropriate, that the safeguards set out in the Act have been complied with, that the arrangement is appropriate to the needs of the person being supported, and that the proper processes in the Act have been followed.
The appointment of a decision support arrangements that effect the is therefore subject to a suite of safeguards, proportionate to the tier of support in question. Co-Decision Making arrangements and Decision Making Representative applications have safeguards such as properly conducted capacity assessments, review by the DSS and/or the court, and statutory notice periods to prescribed persons allowing the DSS or the court to receive and assess any objections to the arrangement.
These decision supporters are required to report on the manner in which they have performed their functions under the Act. Additionally, for all tiers of decision support arrangements, the DSS can receive and investigate complaints made about decision supporters and decision support arrangements, should safeguarding or well-being concerns arise.
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