I thank all Deputies in the House and on the disability matters committee for their constructive and robust engagement on this important Bill, both to date and on Second Stage and Committee Stage. I know there is widespread agreement on the need for this Bill to ensure that wards of court who are due to transition out of wardship have the legal certainty that they require and they are enabled to move through the discharge process in a fair and an orderly manner. It is crucial that both wards and committees are supported as they move through this process of transitioning out of wardship and into the new rights-based framework of decision support arrangements. A key issue that was raised throughout discussions, and both Deputies Ó Murchú and Toole raised it again today, was around the need for meaningful consultation and engagement with stakeholders, including wards and committees. I reiterate my commitment to continued engagement with a wide range of stakeholders, including those with lived experience of the provisions of the assisted decision-making legislation. As Deputy Toole has done earlier, I reiterate and reaffirm my Department's commitment to bringing that wider review of the legislation forward earlier than planned. We are beginning preparations with a view to starting that this year. I thank Deputy Ó Murchú for what he has said in relation to St. John of God's. It is great to hear that they were highly impressed by the meetings and consultations that happened afterwards. That is down to the Courts Service, and to three of my officials, who are here today, namely Jane-Ann Duffy, Melanie Campbell and Orla Cooper, who put a lot of work in following our discussions. I acknowledge them today. I acknowledge that productive meetings were held and specific cases were raised at them and have been discussed. I thank everybody for their engagement on this. It is an important Bill. We will move tomorrow to the Seanad through all Stages, we hope, with a view to getting this moved as quickly as possible so we can provide legal certainty to our wards as they move out of wardship.

Sentiment score: 0.45

On Deputy O'Rourke's question, the Department briefed IHREC on the proposed amendments in advance of taking the legislation through the Houses. In the context of Deputy Quaide’s question on resourcing, the decision support services received an uplift in their budget this year for that reason. We trust that the services will use that money accordingly. We all agree that consultation is the name of the game here. That is something the Department has done. When we first got Cabinet approval for thism we immediately went out and consulted with key stakeholders. We did that online and in person. We had a key consultation meeting earlier this month in relation to this Bill. Some of the issues that were raised related to the parameters of financial agreements. Ultimately, a number of people stated that they thought there should be better support from a financial perspective. That is something we are taking on board. I have written to the Minister for Finance to see if there is any support he can provide to people in this situation and to the committees going forward. We are on the same page when it comes to consultation. That is why we will be starting our consultation on the review of the legislation ahead of schedule. As I said, preparatory work has already been done and we will be starting that later this year.

Sentiment score: 0.21