It is heartwarming to see the cross-party support for the legal profession today.

The Decision Support Service, DSS, is a progressive and long-awaited reform under the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015. It was established to empower people to plan for their future decision-making and to uphold their independence and dignity. However, in practice, the absence of a dedicated solicitors' portal is creating serious barriers for professionals and service users. Solicitors are currently required to log into their clients' personal DSS accounts. The process is cumbersome, time-consuming and raises significant GDPR and cybersecurity issues, as it often involves handling passwords and sensitive personal data for clients. As a result, many solicitors are now reluctant to take on DSS work, which is leaving elderly people and vulnerable adults without access to the very service designed to support them. I ask for a Government commitment to introduce a secure solicitors' portal for the Decision Support Service and to explore establishing DSS kiosks in local libraries and community hubs, with access to computers, printers and scanners to help people to navigate the DSS system. This is particularly important because these arrangements only become relevant when a loved one loses capacity.

I thank the Deputy for raising what is a very important issue for many people. Ensuring that the enduring power of attorney application process is a user-centric and accessible one is a priority for the Department and the Decision Support Service. The Minister has informed me that there is ongoing engagement between the Decision Support Service and the Law Society to ensure the smooth running of the service. This is the beginning of a series of engagements between both parties underlining our commitment set out in the programme for Government to introduce a solicitors' portal. The Government is committed to doing that. The Deputy's issue is when and how fast it can happen.

The Department is also considering the operational period of the Decision Support Service and the uptake of the new system of supported decision-making in that regard to assemble an evidence base for the next steps. I will talk to the Minister with a view to trying to get progress accelerated on this. I like the Deputy's idea of kiosks in libraries and community settings. That is a very good idea. That would create an accessible, user-friendly system.