Ireland’s current capacity law dates back to the Lunacy Act of 1871

– Inclusion Ireland wants to change this

Q&A:

What do we want?

• Capacity legislation that doesn’t call people ’lunatics’ and wasn’t written in 1871

What do we mean by capacity?

• Everything! Its pretty much about making decisions in lots of areas like moving house, signing off on a medical procedure, deciding what to do with your money – just think of all the ‘decisions’ you make everyday without even thinking about it. Now imagine someone said you don’t have the ‘capacity’ to make those decisions.

What should this new law say?

• It should SUPPORT people to make a decision, not allow other people to make that decision instead;
• It shouldn’t use words like as care, protection, best interests and guardianship – that invokes an air of dependency when people with an intellectual disability have a right to make their own decisions;
• It should be assumed that everyone has capacity – this presumption of capacity must apply to areas like marriage, divorce, adoption, sexual relations or acting as a member of a jury. All aspects of a person’s life, not just a few chosen areas!
• Guidelines should be in place for doctors, judges and all other professionals working with and supporting people with an intellectual disability – at the moment there are no such guidelines, so these professionals are working without any support or training in this area;
• The Wards of Court system should be abolished –the Court shouldn’t make decisions about whether someone has capacity;
• It should underpin and support the right to self-determination, the right to participate and the right to make choices as laid out in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities – how would you feel if someone said the Courts will now decide what you do in all areas of your life?
• Just because you may need help making a decision in one area doesn’t mean you should be deemed ‘incapable’ in all areas – someone might need support in deciding how to invest €5million, but they may still decide on their own if they want to have their appendix out!

Did you know?

• Most other European countries have FAR better law in this area than us. Would you consider Ireland to be more ‘modern’ than Hungary? Well Hungarian law in this area is light years ahead of us! Other countries like Canada have systems that put us to shame. In this area of the law, we are the bottom of the barrel.
• Inclusion Ireland has been shouting about this for ten years!
• This isn’t one of those old laws that doesn’t really make a difference – every week Inclusion Ireland gets a call relating to someone’s capacity (or more to the point someone else deciding they don’t think the person has any).

Inclusion Ireland represents people with an intellectual disability, but if you don’t have a disability this could still end up affecting you – older people with dementia and people with mental health problems are also bound by the same ‘Lunacy Act’.

Please sign our Petition calling for Modern Capacity Legislation!

Lobby your local Politicians, put this on their agenda!