Almost every conversation about planning ahead in Ireland starts and ends with the same three letters: EPA. Make an enduring power of attorney and your affairs are sorted. It is good advice, but it leaves the harder question unanswered: what happens if nobody got round to it, and the stroke or the dementia diagnosis arrives first?
Ireland now has a genuinely different answer. The Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015 came into force on 26 April 2023, ended the old wards of court system for adults, and replaced it with something more graduated and, frankly, more humane. Most families still do not know it exists.
TL;DR
- The Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015 commenced on 26 April 2023 and no adult can be made a ward of court in Ireland since that date.
- Capacity is now assessed decision by decision, not as a single global verdict, and you are always presumed to have it.
- There are three tiers of support: a decision-making assistance agreement, a co-decision-making agreement, and a court-ordered decision-making representation order.
- An enduring power of attorney costs €30 to register with the Decision Support Service and cannot cover medical treatment decisions, which need a separate advance healthcare directive.
- Existing wards of court were meant to be reviewed by 26 April 2026, but the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Act 2026 now allows extensions with an absolute backstop of 25 October 2027.
Capacity is not all or nothing
The most important shift in the 2015 Act is conceptual rather than procedural. Under the old wardship system, a court effectively made one finding about a person: they could manage their affairs, or they could not. The Act replaces that with a functional test. Your capacity is assessed in relation to the specific decision in front of you, at the time it has to be made. You lack capacity for that decision only if you are unable to understand the relevant information, retain it long enough to make a choice, use or weigh it, or communicate your decision.
The law also spells out what does not count as lacking capacity: needing information explained differently, retaining it only briefly, or lacking capacity at another time or for a different decision entirely. Someone in the early stages of dementia may be perfectly able to decide where they live and who visits, while needing real help with a property sale. The law now recognises that instead of flattening it.
Three tiers of support, depending on how much you need
A decision-making assistance agreement is the lightest touch. You choose someone you know and trust to help you gather information and understand it. They do not decide anything. You do.
A co-decision-making agreement is a step up: you and your chosen co-decision-maker make specified decisions jointly. Because it means genuinely sharing authority, it requires a doctor and one other healthcare professional to confirm you are able to enter into it, and must be registered with the Decision Support Service.
A decision-making representation order is the last resort and the only one you cannot make yourself. Where someone cannot make a decision even with support, the Circuit Court may appoint a decision-making representative, listing precisely which decisions that person may make and nothing beyond that list. If no suitable family member or friend is available, the court can appoint someone from a panel of trained experts maintained by the Decision Support Service, and their fees may come out of the person’s own estate. Either way, the representative cannot simply substitute their own judgement: they are legally obliged to establish the person’s past and present wishes and keep them involved as far as possible.
The two arrangements you make while you still can
The planning-ahead options sit alongside these. An enduring power of attorney lets you appoint an attorney now to act for you later. It costs €30 to register with the Decision Support Service, with a further €90 fee when it is notified as coming into force, plus whatever your solicitor and doctor charge.
One detail catches people out repeatedly: an EPA cannot cover decisions about medical treatment. Those belong in an advance healthcare directive, a separate written statement of the treatment you would or would not want, in which you can also name a designated healthcare representative. One without the other leaves a real gap.
The message is landing, slowly. The Decision Support Service registered 3,622 enduring powers of attorney in 2025, up from 1,413 the year before, bringing the total to 5,073. It handled more than 43,000 queries across the year, against 26,800 in 2024. Real growth, but on a very small base.
The wardship system is still being wound down
If your family member became a ward of court before April 2023, none of this happened automatically. Roughly 1,700 adult wards were to have their cases reviewed by the courts within three years and to be discharged or moved to an appropriate arrangement.
The three-year deadline of 26 April 2026 was not met in a substantial number of cases. The Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Act 2026, enacted on 31 March 2026, gives the High Court discretion to extend individual reviews by up to 18 months in total. A second extension is possible only in truly exceptional circumstances, and no extension may run beyond 25 October 2027. The deadline itself was not moved; the courts were simply given the tools to finish the job.
A ward, their committee, or a close relative or friend can apply to have a review heard sooner, with legal aid and representation available.
What this means for your family
Two things follow. The absence of an EPA is no longer a catastrophe, it is an expense and a delay: a decision-making representation order carries an initial court fee of €130 plus further costs, with legal aid possible through the Legal Aid Board depending on income and assets. Far better than the old wardship, but still a court process you could have avoided for €30. And the lighter arrangements are badly underused. A decision-making assistance agreement is a reasonable thing to put in place while you are entirely well, in the same spirit as writing a will.
Using fraud, coercion or undue influence to make someone create, change or revoke one of these arrangements is a criminal offence carrying a fine of up to €50,000 or five years’ imprisonment. If something feels off about how a relative is being managed, that is not a family matter to be tolerated quietly.
Where to start
The Decision Support Service, part of the Mental Health Commission, is the statutory body here: it registers arrangements, supervises decision supporters, and publishes codes of practice. Citizens Information explains each arrangement in plain language, the Legal Aid Board has a dedicated strand for capacity applications, and Sage Advocacy works with older adults and their families where something has gone wrong.
At Críonna Health we keep coming back to the same observation: the families who cope best with a capacity crisis are rarely the ones with the most money. They are the ones who had the conversation before they needed to. Ireland has finally built a legal framework worth having that conversation about.
This article is general information, not legal or medical advice. For your own circumstances, consult a solicitor and speak to your GP.
📷 Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash
