Accessible summary Being an adult gives people a right to make their own decisions. This right is called legal capacity. However, some adults need help with making decisions, and some adults need support to explain their decisions to others. Some of the laws in Ireland are outdated, and as a result, some adults, who are able to make their own decisions, do not get to make their own decisions. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) says that all people have legal capacity, that is, the right to make their own decisions and have these decisions respected by law. The United Nations Convention wants Ireland to put new laws in place so that decisions that are made which respect the will and preferences of that person. Ireland needs to put these new laws in place so that Ireland can ratify the treaty of the United Nations. Ratifying a treaty means that a country agrees to do what that treaty says. Organisations who work with and advocate for people with disabilities have been trying to make sure that the new law does what Article 12 says. Summary Ireland was amongst the first signatories of the CRPD on the 30th of March 2007. The Irish government has stated that the barrier to ratification of the Convention is Ireland's out‐dated wards of court system which, upon a finding of incapacity, removes all decision‐making rights (legal capacity) from an individual. This paper examines the implications of Article 12 of the CRPD which prohibits the removal of a person's legal capacity and instead requires the provision by States Parties of the supports necessary to ensure that a person can exercise their legal capacity on an equal basis with others. The paper charts the progress towards ratification by analysing the proposals for reform pre‐CRPD, focusing on the reform of the law on legal capacity as well as the advocacy of civil society organisations on this issue. It concludes with setting out and commenting on government statements on the content of the forthcoming published legislation and makes tentative remarks based on this. The reason for focusing on legal capacity reform is that this is the only issue which has been highlighted by government as a barrier to Ireland's ratification of the CRPD.