I thank the Minister of State for being here. I listened to her last night when she said that urgency was required with the Bill. I and Deputy McDonald tabled a Private Members' Bill on this as long ago as 2017, so I hope we will not be here as long again to get what we need pushed forward. Sinn Féin supports reform of how wardships of court are legislated for. It is a no-brainer. We certainly have to move away from wardship. We have an obligation under the UN Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. That is why the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill is probably one of the most important pieces of legislation that we need to push through as fast as we can. The deadline of 26 April refers most to the adult section of it. I think we will revisit it again when it comes to people under 18 or 19. There is a big cloud around that at the moment. That people who are still involuntarily detained under the Mental Health Act did not have a right to advance their wishes about the treatment they were getting is absolutely mad. I have done a lot of work on this. I thank the Oireachtas Library and Research Service for the amount of work it has done on this Bill over the years. The engagement with the stakeholders and service users has been phenomenal. The other side of this, which we often speak about here, is doing the right thing and giving people their rights and choices. The Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill also extends to people with early onset dementia, for instance, so that they will have the right to get proper care and have the opportunity to nominate somebody who will be able to ensure they get the best quality of care and that their wishes are totally respected. That is a basic human right. The anchor date is 26 April to end the current regime. We will revisit this. We would have loved to have tabled amendments to strengthen it but there is urgency around this and there is also the issue with the High Court. It does need certainty. It represents a great opportunity to strengthen human rights and ensure everyone is respected regarding their right to make a decision for themselves. It will lead to huge changes for those with psychosocial disabilities, mental health difficulties, early onset Alzheimer’s, which I already mentioned, Parkinson’s or whatever. When we worked on the Private Members' Bill some years ago, I remember dealing with stakeholders. When you listen to the families who have gone through the system, a lot of whom are not with us anymore, unfortunately, the dignity was gone, their souls were broken, they had lost their voice and the right to ask for a fair chance and fair try. These are the most vulnerable people. I am not happy with everything – of course not – but I am a realist. Things do not move that fast here. I hope to God the courts will enforce this by the end of April and we can come back and work together to improve the Bill and move it further so people will have better lives.

Sentiment score: 0.18