Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 30 May 2017
120. Deputy Micheál Martin asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality when the Assisted Decision Making (Capacity) Act 2015 will come into force; the reason for the delays; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [25463/17]
View answerThe Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015 provides a modern statutory framework to support decision-making by adults with capacity difficulties. The Act was signed into law on 30 December 2015 and is being commenced on a phased basis.
New administrative processes and support measures, including the setting up of the Decision Support Service within the Mental Health Commission, must be put in place before the substantive provisions of the Act can be commenced. A high-level Steering Group comprised of senior officials from my Department, the Department of Health, the Mental Health Commission and the Courts Service is overseeing the establishment and commissioning of the Decision Support Service (DSS) and this work is ongoing.
A number of provisions of the Act were commenced in October 2016 in order to progress the setting up of the Decision Support Service. The Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015 (Commencement of Certain Provisions) Order 2016 (S.I. No. 515 of 2016), brought some provisions of Part 1 (Preliminary and General) and Part 9 (Director of the Decision Support Service) of the Act into operation on 17 October 2016. These provisions were brought into operation in order to enable the process of recruitment of the Director of the DSS to begin. The recruitment and appointment of the Director of the DSS, and the appointment of DSS staff, is a matter for the Mental Health Commission (a body under the Department of Health) with the approval of the Minister for Health. My Department does not have any statutory function in relation to the recruitment and appointment of the Director.
The commencement of Part 8 of the Act, which provides a legislative framework for advance healthcare directives, is a matter for the Minister for Health.
It is intended that the key preparations will be put in place during the remainder of this year under the oversight of the Steering Group to allow for commencement orders for the remaining provisions of the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015 that fall under my remit to be made on a carefully phased basis when the Decision Support Service is ready to roll out the new decision-making support options. It is not possible at the moment to provide an exact time line for the finalisation of these commencement orders, not least because we will need to have the Director of the DSS in place to fully ascertain the time-line. The post of Director was advertised by the Public Appointments Service on 7 April and it is expected that the Director will be in place during the summer.
However, my firm intention is that the necessary arrangements will be in place to enable commencement of the substantive provisions of the Act early in 2018.
