Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

A number of my questions and issues that I am concerned about have been raised but I will drill a little bit further into a few of them.

I wish to follow up on the question of the optional protocol and the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act. We need to be really clear that it is not an either-or situation. I mean that we should hear that there is a value in the operational protocol and we might get immediate results from the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act. From the committee's perspective, we have been really clear that we think both should be progressed simultaneously. As the Minister of State has said, there are two pieces in the form of the legislative piece and support services. I ask her to confirm that the services to deliver the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act and the legislation are being developed in parallel and to confirm that when she talks about June she is talking about both of those things. June is later than we had heard; we had expected it to be in the first quarter, I think, of next year. Then the service supports would start but all the time the optional protocol keeps getting pushed ahead. From our perspective, as the Minister of State will be aware, the optional protocol does not add a new law. It simply gives people a tool to vindicate the rights that they already have and are in the UNCRPD. It is a way of holding to account.

As the Minister of State has said, there is a long process on the optional protocol and individual cases involved but it is also part of our contribution globally. The committee members, who are responsible for implementation, were very clear that there is a duty to build up good case law. When an individual takes a case, under the optional protocol, he or she will also contribute to the building of good case law so that how the UNCRPD is interpreted in different countries can learn from these kinds of cases and examples. It is a collective raising of standards globally.

I am a little concerned that we have not got a clear date. We had previously heard January for the optional protocol ratification and we have also heard June. We need to know that the optional protocol will be ratified at the minimum by June but, ideally, in the first quarter of next year. We also need to know that the assisted decision-making legislation will not just be concluded by June but we will, in fact, have the services ready to go immediately. I ask the Minister of State to comment on that and then I might come in on a couple of the other questions. My question on the optional protocol is really important so I look forward to her comments.