On Wednesday 21 February 2024 the HSE hosted an evening with Judge John O’Connor, who gave an insight into the implementation of the ADMC Act in the Circuit Court.
Writing of the event in the Irish Times, Mary Carolan reported that Judge O’Connor had urged lawyers and the Legal Aid Board to be ‘more encouraging’ of applications for decision-making supports for people with capacity issues. It was reported that Judge O’Connor said that some lawyers “run away” from representing applicants, “and some just charge too much”.
It was also reported that Judge O’Connor said he was “taken aback” by the number of assessments of the functioning of relevant persons (RPs) which had a diagnostic focus rather than addressing the issue of capacity – “the whole thrust of the Act”. Doctors must be genuinely independent and their reports should not, for example, reflect priorities of a hospital about moving people out of hospital beds, he said. (Read Mary Carolan’s article here.)
Rough statistics
According to Judge O’Connor:
- About 40% of ADMC court applications are by lay-litigants, most of whom said they could not get a solicitor to deal with it or were unable to afford a lawyer;
- Of 148 applications before him in Dublin Circuit Court, he granted orders appointing decision-making representatives (DMRs) in half;
- Of the remaining 74 applications before him, some were adjourned for reasons including inadequate paperwork, and some were withdrawn for reasons including death of the relevant person (RP) or the parties’ deciding to instead pursue a co-decision-making arrangement;
- Just 38% of RPs had legal representatives in the earlier months of the Act’s operation, but that rose to 55% in relation to the last 20 DMR orders granted;
- Just 7% of RPs have participated, either physically or remotely, in the court hearings affecting them;
- In 78% of applications, the RP’s voice was heard via an advocacy group and 22% by other means.
Q&A Session + Panel Discussion
Judge O’Connor’s presentation was followed by a Q&A session, chaired by Professor Mary Donnelly, School of Law, University College Cork.
The evening concluded with questions from the floor to the Judge and a panel of experts, including Professor Shaun O’Keeffe, Aine Flynn, Director of the Decision Support Service, Bibiana Savin, Assistant CEO, Sage Advocacy, and Suzy Byrne, disability advocate and Regional Manager, National Advocacy Service for People with Disabilities.
Event Video
The evening was captured on video and published by the HSE on YouTube, and is included below for your viewing pleasure.
Unfortunately the HSE did not see fit to add chapter markers to the video and, at just under 2 hours long, it may be difficult to find what you might be looking for. (It may also interest you to know that the HSE runs YouTube ads during the video, so you’ll be supporting our national health service with advertising revenue by watching!).
In an effort to assist you, I’ve identified the following time-stamps in the video for ease of navigation:
- 0:00 Introduction & Administrative Announcements
- 3:18 Opening Remarks – Dr. Philip Crowley, HSE National Director for Strategy & Research
- 6:02 Introduction of Judge O’Connor by Professor Mary Donnelly, UCC School of Law
- 7:43 Presentation by Judge John O’Connor
- 26:55 Question & Answer Session – Professor Donnelly & Judge O’Connor
- 56:30 Panel Discussion – Introduction of Panellists
- 59:43 Panel Discussion
- 1:28:50 Questions from the Audience
- 1:50:26 Closing Remarks
- 1:53:48 End