We strongly advise that anyone of advanced years or who has serious health difficulties should create an Enduring Power of Attorney. An Enduring Power of Attorney will enable you to appoint a trusted reliable person to act as your Attorney and to manage your affairs in the event of you losing the mental capacity to manage them yourself.
An Enduring Power of Attorney can only be activated in the event that you lose the mental capacity to manage your own affairs including your finances and your property. To create an Enduring Power of Attorney, we need your written authority to engage with the Director of Support Services, a new Government Agency, and we also need comprehensive ID and address verification documentation. Your G.P. and another healthcare professional, such as a registered nurse, must also certify that you have the mental capacity to create an Enduring Power of Attorney and to understand same. Subsequently, the Enduring Power of Attorney can only be activated if your G.P., and another medical practitioner certify that you have lost mental capacity and are no longer able to manage your own affairs.
Apart from certification by a G.P., or registered medical practitioner and by another Healthcare professional there is a further in built protection in that all family members must be notified in writing of your creation of the Enduring Power of Attorney. It cannot therefore be a family secret but is created in an open manner.
How much does creation of an Enduring Power of Attorney cost? The cost of an Enduring Power of Attorney, created with our assistance, can be estimated as follows;
Total €1,580.00
We no longer accept instructions to create Enduring Powers of Attorney. Up until mid-April of 2023, we accepted instructions to create Enduring Powers of Attorney on a weekly basis. Typically, we would have completed the work within 2 weeks of getting instructions and the entire system worked entirely satisfactorily.
At the behest of an organisation which styles itself (and receives Government funding for this purpose) as an advocacy group for older people, the Government radically changed the legislation and the result is a complete and total mess. As a result of the change in legislation, and the setting up of the largely useless Decision Support Service, we have been unable to create a single Enduring Power of Attorney since mid-April of 2023. Moreover, we do not know of a single Solicitor anywhere who is actually doing this work. We have also had several clients who embarked on trying to create an Enduring Power of Attorney themselves, using the “services” of the Decision Support Service but despite efforts over many months, have completely failed. The system is a total mess and this mess is entirely the creation of Government. It is also an obscene waste of tax payers’ money. The Decision Support Service has rented expensive offices for itself in central Dublin, has a staff of 65 people and has received over €40 million in tax payers’ money. This is a far bigger scandal than the recently highlighted bike shed at Leinster House.
Apart from being a scandal, the reality is that ordinary people who need to have Enduring Powers of Attorney because of declining health are no longer able to create these instruments. People badly need to have a simple and effective method for creating Enduring Powers of Attorney but this is no longer possible as a result of ill-thought out, badly prepared and totally defective Government legislation, Government Policy, bad advice, bad drafting and allowing outside actors to have far too much influence on an important Government process. In short, it is a disgrace and we regret that we are not in a position because of the above to create Enduring Powers of Attorney for clients until the current legislation, which governs this area, is repealed entirely.
If you are concerned that you may need to create an Enduring Power of Attorney, please do not hesitate to contact us and we will provide professional and entirely confidential advise to you.