Peadar Tóibín
Question:935. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality to review the case of a person (details supplied). [29869/26]
View answerTuesday, 28 April 2026
Questions (935)
Written answers
The Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015, which commenced in 2023, marked a landmark reform of Ireland’s capacity laws, bringing the state into much closer alignment with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.When the Act commenced in April 2023, it abolished the wards of court framework for adults by repealing the Lunacy Regulation (Ireland) Act 1871 and replacing it with a rights-based model of tiered decision support arrangements. It represents an important shift away from a ‘best interests’ approach to a rights-based approach, privileging a person’s will, preferences and autonomy. The 2015 Act also established the Decision Support Service which has statutory responsibility for processing, reviewing, registering and overseeing decision support arrangements.
In line with the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Act 2026, all adult wards of court will be discharged from wardship no later than 25th October 2027. As part of the discharge proceedings, a functional capacity assessment will be carried out to determine the ward of court’s decision-making capacity and the most appropriate level of decision-support arrangement required, if indeed any. Decision support arrangements include decision-making assistance agreements, co-decision-making agreements and decision-making representation orders.
The Department does not comment on individual cases. As this is an operational matter for the Health Service Executive (HSE), the HSE has been asked to reply directly to the Deputy.