The Government’s proposed Mental Capacity Bill will provide greater legal protection for a range of vulnerable adults, including those with intellectual disabilities, the Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern has said.
In an address to a conference in Dublin Castle today, Mr Ahern said the current system was "outdated and incapable of coping" with the existing and projected demographic growth of persons who lack capacity.
The conference forms part of the consultation process on the Government's proposals for the Bill, which was published last September.
Mr Ahern said the main purpose of the Bill is to reform the existing Wards of Court system in so far as it applies to adults, and “replace it with a modern statutory framework governing decision making on behalf of persons who lack capacity.”
“The objective is to provide greater legal protection for a range of adults including persons with intellectual disabilities, those suffering from dementia or mental illness and persons who have acquired brain injuries through trauma or accident,” he said.
Under the proposed legislation, lack of capacity will be defined by focusing on the particular time when a decision has to be made and on the particular matter to which a decision relates and not on a capacity to make decisions generally.
This is a significant change from the current system, where a finding of incapacity applies to every decision a person may make and every legal transaction they may wish to enter into.
In his address, Mr Ahern said: "This is a Bill for and about adults who are vulnerable in the sense that they may lack some or all capacity to make important decisions for themselves,” Mr Ahern said.
“The Bill makes provision for such decisions to be made where possible by them or by a carer, or ultimately the court, on their behalf.
The Minister said the proposed legislation was necessary to modernise the law on capacity which date for the most part from 1871.
“The terminology and conceptual framework of that legislation harks back to a time when our understanding of mental capacity was different, our treatment of the vulnerable was harsher and our recognition of fundamental rights was narrower,” he said.