Ms Catherine Naughton:

I thank the Deputy for her questions and I am very happy to answer on the European co-operation question. This is very timely and a very good question because the European Union adopted its disability strategy in March which outlines activities at both EU and national levels to try to harmonise and co-ordinate in a better way, as the Deputy has mentioned. A disability platform will be set up which should include representatives from EU and national level. It is very important for Ireland to have a robust engagement on the disability platform as it is set up to see whether, from Ireland’s point of view, it wants to set up working groups on specific topics that it may want to co-operate on with other European countries. The more dynamics that come from the national level, the more this will energise that disability platform. This is an opportunity for setting up a structure of co-operation. The terms of reference have not been launched for this yet but an online platform should be possible for national and European engagement, peer exchange and sharing on various topics.

One part of EU laws and policies which is a weakness in European co-operation is that the convention calls on all state parties to have a focal point and co-ordination mechanism. We discussed earlier that it would be very good in Ireland, for example, to have something like this in the Taoiseach’s office which has that horizontal mainstreaming. This has not yet been very well established at EU level but the European Parliament has a disability interest group that is looking at creating a focal point and it already has a UNCRPD network which is somewhat advanced. We all know that the members of the Council of the European Union are people who stay up all night to make decisions about large and important political and economic issues within the Union. The Council has no focal point on the UNCRPD. That means that there is no part of the Council where we have a contact point person who would look at horizontal mainstreaming and the rights of persons with disabilities. These are the discussions and this is the place where important legislation is reshaped in a real way by member states.

Another thing that would greatly contribute to a harmonised approach in Europe would be to have a focal point in the Council of the European Union and the EU Council where the Ministers and heads of state sit and make decisions about resource allocation. Many more parts could have been added to the European accessibility act, which is an EU directive that was adopted a couple of years ago and is a very strong piece of legislation concerning accessibility mainly in the digital field mainly for the European Single Market, but in the negotiations with the Council of the European Union many parts were removed. These discussions do not take place with people with disabilities and their representative organisations. The Council of the European Union has more of a closed-door discussion. The European Ombudsman has also been working on the transparency of decision-making, and this is something that Ireland can contribute to. If it believes that people with disabilities should be at the table in the national discussions, then it would also be important to be present at the European level. I thank the committee.