The Gazette 1991

NOVEMBER 1991

GAZETTE

attorneys were related to donors. The English Court of Protection has been criticised for being complex, slow and remote and the English Law Society has proposed that the Court be made more accessible possibly by means of local tribunals. Another weakness in the EPA procedure is that no one knows whether registrations are taking place when appropriate. Unregistered EPAs may be per- petuated long after the donor had lost capacity. Recently the London Independent stated that "there was also a clear tension between operating a system that is simple, cheap and convenient, and the need to prevent abuse by self- interested attorneys or disruption by officious third parties. No technical or medical test is applied to mental capacity on registra- tion. The donor's attorneys apply when they themselves consider the donor to have become inca- pacitated". The answer is of course that additional resources will be needed and an overall examination

of the law dealing wi th the mentally disabled is required. This does not however take away from the immediate impact and relief that a system of EPAs would bring to many elderly people in Ireland. Conclusion This LaW Reform Commission Report is a practical example how law reform can make a material difference to the public without imposing any great cost at a time of economic stringency. Pressure from the legal profession to introduce a system of EPAs would be viewed by the public in a very positive way and could only improve our public relations. Finally, enduring powers of attorney have been perceived by many of our English counterparts as a useful new source of fee income. Visions of "Make a Will and an Enduring Power of Attorney week" should move the more cynical of our colleagues. •

Substitution of attorneys and delegation of powers. The donor may of course substitute attorneys before he becomes mentally incompetent. The Com- mission believes that the donor should be entitled to appoint a substitute in the power itself and the court would be empowered to substitute an attorney in the event of there not being a full and competent attorney. Similarly to ordinary powers, the EPA attorney would have implied power to delegate any of his functions which were not such that the donor would have expected the attorney to attend to personally. Any warrant or power to delegate would have to be provided for expressly in the instrument. All the other jurisdictions provide for mechanisms whereby the court may terminate an EPA. The donor would be entitled to revoke the power at any time until his imcompetency. The Commission recommended that the court should have power to terminate an EPA only where there was evidence that the power was not being operated properly. The Commission concluded that over- all the English system was a suitable one to implement in the Irish jurisdiction and they so recommended. What has been the English experience? Interested organisa- tions fo^ the aged see enormous advantages in EPAs. There are cheap to administer and enable donors to plan in advance for possible senility. Solicitors are being encouraged to suggest to clients approaching old age that they execute EPAs as a matter of routine, often at the same time as making a will. Around thirty thousand EPAs were traced in 1989. Approximately two thousand were registered in that year. A typical donor was a woman aged between 80 and 90. More than sixty per cent of the recipient Termination and revocation of EPAs

I N D U S T R I A L R K L A T I O N S L A W M K I I A I l . I O K D i ; T he book is a comprehensive statement of the legalregimegoverning collective bargaining and other forms of industrialrelations.These rules were altered significantly by the Industrial Relations Act, 1990. The full import of those changes is dealt with throughout the book. Matters dealt with include: the legal underpinnings for collective bargaining; collective agreements and their enforceability; industrial action — strike, lock-out, picketing, 'blacking' etc., the new requirements to exhaust grievance procedures and resort to secret ballots before striking; public sector bargaining — rules and procedures governing the entire process; modes of industrialrelationsother than collective bargaining; trade unions and their internal affairs. A very useful appendix provides

the text of the various acts. ISBN 0 947686 75 4 £39.00

THE ROUND HALL PRESS Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland Tel: (01) 2892922 Fax: 2893072

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