Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome that the Government is this evening commencing the process of ratifying the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Ireland is the last state in the EU to do so, despite having signed the framework document in 2007. My Independent colleagues and I will support the Government in ratifying this convention but I would like to know how people with disabilities will benefit from its ratification. Despite the efforts of the Minister of State to change attitudes, people with disabilities are, in many ways, still treated poorly. For example, for the past two years people with disabilities aged over 18 in west Cork have been unable to access transport to the organisations they need to attend daily. That is a sad reflection on society. As I said, I would like to know if, following ratification of this convention, these people will be provided with transport from their homes to their services, as was the case prior to them turning 18 years of age. I have been raising this issue for some time. I have sought a meeting with the HSE but nobody will sit down with me in west Cork to discuss how we can resolve this issue. I am willing to work with others to resolve it but there is a particular gentleman in the HSE, who obviously is being paid by the State, who refuses continually to meet me and the people who are suffering because their parents are elderly and they are no longer able to make the six or seven hour journey to take them to and from their daily services. It is outrageous. This issue needs to be resolved.

I hope that ratification of this convention will help people with disabilities. I will be monitoring this process to ensure that it does.

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