Dr. Mary Keogh:

I thank the joint committee for the invite. I am honoured to be here. Mr. Bosselmann spoke about the international context and the sustainable development goals. I will speak about the Irish context. In recent years, the Government and Irish Aid have made significant progress on the inclusion of people with disabilities in Ireland's overseas programme. As the briefing paper that has been furnished to the committee goes through that in detail, I will not allude further to it. I suggest it is fair to say that the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is largely driving the commitments being made by the Government with regard to inclusive development. I know the Government has set out a roadmap for the ratification of the UN convention in the future.

The significance of the One World, One Future policy is that it involves a leadership approach to disability. This progressive document commits the Government to devoting more resources to achieving equality for people with disabilities. We are delighted to see that Irish Aid is delivering on these important commitments to people with disabilities in the developing world in areas such as human rights, public services and livelihoods. We acknowledge that the parliamentary questions which have been discussed in recent times have given an increased visibility to people with disabilities in the overseas aid programme. There is a commitment within that programme to look at Ireland's role in ensuring the implementation of the sustainable development goals is inclusive of people with disabilities.

This is a crux time because the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the sustainable development goals have given us a foundation, for one of the first times ever, to advance the human rights of people with disabilities who live in some of the poorest countries of the world. We strongly urge the committee, in its regular review of Ireland's overseas development aid programme and in its future progress reports on sustainable development goals, to look at ways of measuring the specific impacts these initiatives are having on people with disabilities. Mr. Bosselmann alluded to that when he spoke about the importance of monitoring data.

We would like to see continuing engagement. We have had very good engagement with Irish Aid in recent years through CBM Ireland and through the coalitions with the Dóchas working group on disability and development. We would like to see that continue. We are endeavouring to work in partnership to ensure we can support an international development programme that is inclusive of people with disabilities.