Ms Sinéad Gibney:

On the optional protocol, it is absolutely very encouraging to hear there is a start date for implementation. Overall, the commission is concerned about the State's record on ratifying and reporting on human rights treaties, not just the CRPD but all of the treaties. Ireland was the last member state to ratify the UNCRPD and we are one of only six EU states which had yet to ratify the optional protocol at the end of 2019. The State is routinely late in reporting; for example, the State combined its fifth to ninth reports under the UN International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination when reporting in 2018, a gap of nearly ten years. Therefore, in seeking a roadmap I would ask for detail, detailed phases, plans and deadlines for implementation. The problem we have is when these deadlines are pushed out. For example, the report due in April is now to come out by the end of this year. It is not just the report that is delayed but the lives of those people whose rights continue to be unrealisable because of this delay. As such, it is not just the report that is being delayed and it is important that when those roadmaps are set out that this is clearly established and that those people and the Department are held to the roadmap they set out. As I said, it is very encouraging to hear that but it is very important to hold bodies to account.

On the other points the Deputy mentioned on the attitudinal piece, I emphasise again that the committee's experience of monitoring the implementation of the UNCRPD is something members themselves should use as a learning opportunity. Members should become exemplars in terms of their own attitudes to people with disabilities and to disability itself. Members will then start to see that they will develop the language, ideas and attitudes to start to change from here outwards. The committee should, in particular, be looking to implement ways to put into effect Article 4(3) of the UNCRPD, which allows for effective participation, which should then become the norm across the Oireachtas. There is no reason for this to be the only committee engaging with people with disabilities and fully facilitating them to have their voice heard. That is one thing I would say is really important and the committee should just get stuck into the convention itself. I have a dog-eared copy of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Act 2014, the founding legislation for our body, that I carry with me everywhere I go and I feel committee members should all carry dog-eared copies of the CRPD with them. They should all really get to know it, get stuck into it and understand it. That attitudinal piece will then come through.