Séamus McGrath (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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1975. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the average time for decisions on enduring power of attorney applications from the date the application is submitted to the courts. [46175/25]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for their question regarding Enduring Powers of Attorney (EPA) applications.

The Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015 ('the 2015 Act') provides a modern statutory framework to support decision-making by adults with capacity difficulties, including providing for a new EPA system which enables an individual to plan ahead by appointing someone they trust to act as their attorney and to make certain decisions on their behalf if they lose capacity in the future. The Decision Support Service (DSS) has statutory responsibility for the operation of many of the provisions of the 2015 Act, including processing and registering EPAs made under the Act.

There is no requirement to apply to court to register an EPA made under the 2015 Act, which commenced in April 2023. The 2015 Act provides that EPAs can no longer be made under the Powers of Attorney Act, 1996. However EPAs which were created under the 1996 Act and prior to the commencement of the 2015 Act can still be registered and activated by the High Court in the advent of the loss of the donor’s capacity. EPAs made under the 1996 Act lie outside my Department’s remit and fall instead under the remit of the Department of Justice and the Courts Service.

Under the 2015 Act, the average time for an application to be registered by the DSS is approximately five months, which includes a statutory five-week objection period. Once this five-week objection period passes, the application enters a queue for review. The DSS provides updated information on applications on its website at www.decisionsupportservice.ie/services/enduring-power-attorney-epa/application-processing-times.

Under the 2015 Act, if a person with an EPA in place loses capacity to make certain decisions, the attorney(s) must ‘notify’ the DSS to activate an EPA that has already been registered with the DSS. ‘Notifying’ is the process used to activate an EPA and bring it into effect. The average time for acceptance of notification of an EPA from receipt of application is six weeks (this includes the statutory five-week objection period).

The DSS keeps all of its timelines and processes under review. As of end July 2025, the DSS had registered 3,475 EPAs. The increasing number of registered EPAS indicates robust engagement with the new framework for EPAs as provided for in the 2015 Act, and a growing awareness by adults of the importance of planning for the future.

The DSS publishes statistics relating to the registration, and acceptance of notification, of decision support arrangements including EPAs on its website at www.decisionsupportservice.ie/decision-support-arrangement-statistics.