Dr. Eilionóir Flynn:

No. I have some examples of work that has been done in other countries. I suppose the best examples are from civil law countries where parliaments are usually formally involved in the ratification process because of their different legal systems. For example, in Spain, Hungary, Croatia and many other countries, the parliament actually debated whether the convention should be ratified. It is not a decision of the Executive in those countries but a decision of the Legislature. That is due to the different legal systems so there is not much that can be done about that. In New Zealand and Australia, for example, the parliaments were involved, although not formally, in making the decision on whether those countries should ratify. Joint parliamentary committees held hearings, received submissions from people with disabilities and their representative organisations and debated the merits of speedy ratification in those two countries. They were both in favour of ratifying quite quickly to show leadership in that area.

With regard to what could be done here, I certainly do not believe there is any disadvantage to beginning now to open discussion on these issues. I know from dialogue with many organisations representing people with disabilities that there is increasing frustration over the fact that the process of determining the obstacles to ratification is not one into which they can be seen to have an input. While they might have some solutions or suggestions on how we can overcome the reasonable accommodation question, there is simply no forum for them in which to present their views, apart from making submissions privately to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Department of Justice and Equality or wherever else these issues are being debated. However, they are not formally involved in the work of the interdepartmental committee in respect of each of the Departments that is reviewing legislation and policy under the convention.

Another step that could be taken would be to better integrate the work that is ongoing on monitoring Ireland's national disability strategy and to join that work up with that of the interdepartmental working committee on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Right now, there are two separate processes although they involve many of the same actors. However, civil society has the opportunity to have a formal input into the disability strategy monitoring process whereas, to date, it has not had the opportunity to have a formal input into questions on whether Ireland should ratify the convention.