Dr. Eilionóir Flynn:

To address the issue of comparative countries and how they have approached this, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights produced a report, which I cited in my opening remarks, which studied the ratification process in a number of countries that had ratified at the time. I believe the report was published in 2009 which was quite early in the process of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, but none the less at that point they were able to point to a number of different approaches. They sent survey questions to all the countries that had ratified at that point asking them about their process, what they found beneficial and how they went about it. In that process also many of those countries, including Australia and New Zealand, produced national interest analysis of the impact of the convention on national law and also its financial impact and the impact it might have on the lives of people with disabilities. That is quite a good exercise and one in which the Oireachtas and this sub-committee could play a role. The Senator's suggestion of involving the Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality or this sub-committee in working with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in whatever process it engages in would be a valuable one and that would reflect approaches that have been taken in other jurisdictions.