Just a short note to state that the Seanad amendments to be debated at Committee Stage of the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill 2022 were published on the 28th of September 2022. There were 80 amendments to the Bill listed for debate at Committee stage. What is surprising is that there were a large number of Government amendments still listed as part of those amendments. Roughly, up to about 50% of the amendments listed appeared to be Government sponsored amendments. This demonstrates the degree of complexity of the original 2015 Act and as a consequence the necessity to further tease out its ambitious scope.

These amendments were debated up to amendment 39 as of the 28th of September with further debates to follow. Obviously, the opposition amendments were not adopted, however, many of these appeared to be well thought out. The debates surrounding the rationale for their introduction and Minister O’Gorman’s reasons for not adopting them, serve to enhance our understanding of the overall picture of the 2022 Bill and the 2015 Act in general. What is interesting is that both the Government and the Opposition mentioned that they would like to revisit elements at Report Stage, so further amendments may be made at that time. It is not clear when the next debate of the final Committee Stage amendments will be debated and stay tuned to this blog for further details.

I attach a link to the relevant page of the Oireachtas website where you can find a copy of the list of amendments and the debates.

https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/bills/bill/2022/59/?tab=debates

If you have any queries please reach out to ckelly@hcalaw.ie