Commencement of the 2015 Act
The process of commencement of the 2015 Act is now underway:
- I. No. 515/2016 brought some provisions of Part 1 (Preliminary and General) and Part 9 (Director of the Decision Support Service) of the 2015 Act into operation on 17 October 2016. Those provisions were brought into operation in order to enable the process of recruitment of the Director of the Decision Support Service to begin.
- I. No. 517/2016 was signed by the Minister of Health on 13 October 2016. That Order provided for the commencement on 17 October 2016 of section 91(2) of the 2015 Act, namely the establishment by the Minister for Health of a multidisciplinary working group to make recommendations to the Director of the Decision Support Service in relation to codes of practice pertaining to the advance healthcare directive provisions of the 2015 Act.
Progress is therefore well underway within relevant Departments to permit fuller implementation of the 2015 Act.