Finian McGrath (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the committee for the kind invitation. I thank all my colleagues for attending for the early meeting. It is a great honour and privilege for me to take over as Minister of State with responsibility for disability. I have a long-term vision centred on the rights of persons with disabilities and on focusing on what they want. That will be the theme of my term as Minister of State with responsibility in this area.

This debate is linked to that relating to the delay in the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, CRPD. Ireland is one of the few EU member states that has yet to ratify it. While Ireland's not having ratified the CRPD is a recurring point of criticism by the United Nations, in addition to many domestic national governmental organisations, it should be noted that Ireland is in many respects more advanced than many other European Union member states in terms of the quality of service and the position of people with disabilities. In the past six months, in particular, we have been introducing services to ensure people with disabilities have services. We are planning in respect of signing the convention.

We sign conventions as a declaration of our commitment to seek to apply the convention concerned in Ireland. We ratify when we can guarantee to our international partners that we are meeting our commitments. Under the Constitution, while the conduct of international affairs, including ratification of treaties, is the responsibility of the Government, the sole prerogative of legislation for the State is vested in the Oireachtas. Article 29.6 states: "No international agreement shall be part of the domestic law the State save as may be determined by the Oireachtas." That should always be the case as far as I am concerned. Ratifying a convention before we have amended domestic legislation that contradicts it makes no sense and does nothing to ensure compliance and to protect the people for whose benefit the convention exists. We are committed to ratification as quickly as possible, taking into account the need to ensure that all necessary legislative and administrative requirements under the convention are met. I am very serious about that.

On 21 October 2015, the Government published a roadmap for Ireland's ratification of the CRPD. It outlines legislative changes to be undertaken to enable Ireland to ratify the convention along with the estimated timeframe involved. The roadmap for ratification, with a deadline at the end of 2016, shows there is a substantial legislative agenda to be completed across a number of Departments. It also sets out the considerable work currently under way to deal with outstanding barriers to Ireland's ratification.

On 26 March last, the Government approved the general scheme of the equality/disability (miscellaneous provisions) Bill, which we are focusing on today. The Bill will overcome most of the legislative barriers to Ireland's ratification of the CRPD. The Government also approved the priority drafting of the Bill within six months in order to allow for its enactment before the end of the year. The general scheme of the Bill was submitted to this committee as part of the pre-legislative scrutiny process. It is published on the website of the Department of Justice and Equality and addresses issues such as the convention's requirements regarding reasonable accommodation and the deprivation of liberty, in addition to removing the archaic references in existing legislation relating to mental health. The Bill will also establish the independent monitoring and implementation framework in accordance with Article 33 of the convention.

It is intended that Ireland will sign and ratify the optional protocol to the convention at the same time as the convention is ratified. The optional protocol provides for individual complaints to be submitted directly to the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities by individuals and groups of individuals, or by a third party on behalf of individuals and groups of individuals, alleging their rights have been violated under the convention. It is important that the convention does not establish new rights and that issues concerning expenditure are not a barrier to ratification. These are matters for progressive realisation. Issues concerning the allocation of resources will always be subject to debate. I am currently dealing with this in respect of the HSE service plan, which will be announced later today. It is a matter for the individual Departments involved. As already stated, service standards and funding are subject to what the convention describes as "progressive realisation" and to the budgetary decisions of the Government of the day.

The Bill is in the final stages of drafting. There has been a delay and I am very disappointed about it. The Office of the Attorney General is naturally striving to ensure the Bill will be perfect when published. Some of the legal issues have apparently presented more complexity than expected and hence one of the major reasons for the delay in ratification. I made the mistake previously of stating I would have this done by the end of 2016. I am not in a position today to give an exact date. I expect the Bill to be published very shortly so as to facilitate early ratification of the convention.

With regard to what goes on in different countries and the relevant legislation, it is important when discussing this issue that we understand that different countries take different approaches to ratification of international conventions. We take our international conventions very seriously. We do not ratify until we can guarantee compliance. The actual position of people with disabilities in Ireland today is in many respects more advanced than in other European states. I acknowledge we have had a number of years of austerity but part of my brief since taking over as Minister of State has been to try to achieve reform and to invest in services. We are actually ahead of other countries in regard to providing services for people with disabilities.

From my perspective, three key issues have arisen. Section 5 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 1993 needed to be replaced. This is being addressed in the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2015, which has been passed in the Seanad and is now scheduled for Committee Stage in the Dáil. The second issue concerns the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act, enacted in 2015. It needs to be commenced. The third issue concerns the equality/disability (miscellaneous provisions) Bill, which is to address all the remaining issues. As stated, drafting is almost complete. The Department of Justice and Equality is currently working closely with the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel and the Office of the Attorney General. We hope to publish the Bill very shortly. We aim to submit it to the Government as quickly as possible.

The Bill will address issues such as the convention's requirements on reasonable accommodation and the deprivation of liberty. This will be achieved by way of Committee Stage amendment. I am reluctant to give a date for publication but we are really moving on it. I have been working very hard on pushing this issue over the past couple of weeks.

I am very disappointed personally that I have not yet reached my target in respect of the UN convention. With a bit of luck, we might hit it sooner than expected. While I am disappointed personally, I realise that there were complexities and blockages within the system. In the meantime, I wish to give a commitment to colleagues right across all the various Departments to work very hard to invest in services to ensure all people with a physical or intellectual disability will be respected.

The best way to do so is to ensure that there is quality and proper access to services. Hopefully, we can then ratify the UN Convention.