A chara, – Dominic Coyle’s articles on enduring powers of attorney shed welcome light on what is a very unwelcome crisis in the system for their creation for the potentially vulnerable people who may need to depend on them (“Legal care backlog amid Law Society and Decision Support Service dispute”, Business, June 4th; “Elder advocate defends new regime to protect rights of the elderly”, Business, June 5th).
The online system imposed on the creation of enduring powers of attorney by the Decision Support Service since April 2023 does not enable a professional agent or adviser to access the system on behalf of a client to assist with the creation of the documentation and ensure it is done correctly.
Revenue’s online ROS system allows a tax adviser to prepare and file returns for a taxpayer if the taxpayer so chooses. The Injuries Resolution Board’s web-portal allows a solicitor to prepare an injury claim on behalf of a claimant if they wish to have professional assistance in doing so. The Decision Support Service system does not.
If people wish to have professional assistance in the creation of enduring powers of attorney via a digital platform they should be facilitated in doing so and are entitled to have their professional adviser access the system on their behalf if they want to have help in preparing what can be complicated and profoundly important documents with serious legal consequences.
Solicitors have been helping people make enduring powers of attorney since they were introduced in 1996 – we want to be able to help our clients make them and we want to engage with anything that improves how this can be done.
This is a change that can and should be made immediately to end this crisis in the creation of enduring powers of attorney which is causing serious problems for vulnerable people who need to have them in place. – Yours, etc,
FLOR McCARTHY,
MARTIN LAWLOR,
DECLAN O’TOOLE,
COLM KELLY,
TONY SHEIL,
BERNADETTE PARTE,
CONOR BRADY,
ANNE KELLY,
GERRY McCANNY,
EAMONN CARNEY,
MAUREEN BLACK,
PADRAIC WAFER,
RONI COLLINS,
SIOBHÁN DALY,
NEIL BUTLER
PAT SHEEHAN,
KARL O’CONNOR,
SEÁN ACTON,
TIM AHERN,
DAVID CHRISTIE,
JAMES STAINES,
SONIA MCENTEE,
SONYA LANIGAN,
SHEA CULLEN,
DÓNAL CARROLL,
PAUL BRADY,
CATHERINE STACK,
NOEL O’GORMAN,
JENNIFER STEEL,
COLM MACEOIN,
AILEEN MOLLAHAN,
JESSICA HICKEY,
PATRICIA WALLEY,
JOHN FAHY,
BARBARA SHERRY,
FIONA GILLEN,
MARTIN COSGROVE,
SUZANNE MCDONNELL,
DEARBHÁIL MULHERN,
MATTHEW JOHNSTON,
NIAMH MCLYNN,
EIMEAR SAMPSON,
ROMAINE SCALLY,
DONNA FARRELL,
KERRY CLEAR,
KATE COLBERT,
CATHERINE DUNDON,
MARGARET REYNOLDS,
DAVID CLERY,
DERMOT SHERLOCK,
MARY BRADLEY,
RÓISÍN SLATTERY-GLEESON,
AUDREY KENNEDY,
LINDA NICHOLSON,
CAITRÍONA HEALY,
ORLAGH WAFER,
DAMIAN GRUDZIEN,
OLIVER BURKE,
BILL HOLOHAN SC,
JOHN LANE,
IVAN FERAN,
MARGARITA PURTILL,
The Solicitors’
Growth Network,
Clonakilty,
Co Cork.