Ms Lianne Quigley:

The DPO Network is pleased to be here today. The DPO Network is an alliance of disabled people and their organisations of which we have five in Ireland which have joined together with a common interest in the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Ireland. The five DPO member organisations of the DPO Network are: AsIAm, Ireland's national autism advocacy organisation; Disabled Women Ireland, DWI; Independent Living Movement Ireland, ILMI; the Irish Deaf Society, IDS; and the National Platform of Self Advocates.

The DPO Network is committed to human rights and a social model of disability which says that exclusion, inequality and discrimination in disabled people's experience is not a consequence of their impairments but a result of the economic, cultural, social and political forces at play in society. All of our work is led and informed by the active participation of disabled people based on their lived experience. Given the broad membership base of the members the network gives a unique space for a genuinely cross-impairment discussion and analysis of the issues faced by disabled people and provides a space for networking between the organisations.

DPOs work from an explicitly human rights and equality approach. Our aim is to build a more inclusive society. We are informed by the social model of disability and, therefore, in all the documentation we use and in our discussions we use the term "disabled people". That represents our values of equality and empowerment which are core to the DPO Network. The term "disabled people" comes specifically from a view from disability advocates as in the social model of disability. The social model of disability looks at how society is structured and how it disables people. It is not based on a person’s impairment. It specifically looks at the barriers that exist in terms of attitudes, policy development, access or lack of access to supports that prevent people from fully participating in society as equals and ensuring they have choice and control over their lives. Within this model it is society that disables people from achieving their hopes and dreams, not the person’s impairment. The social model informs the work of the DPOs and the members of the DPO Network. Central to the way we work is to ensure that policy decisions that will directly affect disabled people's lives must be made in consultation with and influenced by those whose lives they will directly affect. The work of the DPO is to work with policymakers, legislators and statutory bodies to develop policies and campaigns based on disabled people’s lived experiences in order to remove these barriers that restrict the life choices of disabled people. When these barriers are removed disabled people can become independent and equals in society, with choice and control over their lives.

The barriers are not just physical, they also relate to attitudes which we often find in society, based on prejudice or stereotyping, often called disablism. These also disable people from having equal opportunities to be part of society. Disabled people developed the social model of disability because the traditional medical model did not sufficiently explain the lived experience of disability or help to develop more inclusive ways of living within society.

DPOs are civil society organisations of disabled people as distinct and completely separate from disability service providers and charities for "clients" or "service users". Disability service providers, most of whom are funded at least in part by the State, often comprise boards and staff who are non-disabled people. A more detailed discussion about this along with a number of other points related to terminology and definitions are covered in the submission we submitted to the joint committee.

I will now talk about the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. It is just four years since Ireland ratified the UNCRPD in 2018. We are now at a very important juncture where leadership must be shown by Government in the implementation of the convention to progressively realise the rights of people with disabilities in Ireland. Implementation of the UNCRPD will require the full and active participation of disabled people in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies to promote effective social inclusion through their representative DPOs.

The UNCRPD is not solely about policies and frameworks concerning disabled people's lives. It is about ensuring that disabled people and their needs are given full regard in all aspects of public, cultural, economic, civic and political life in Ireland. Ireland's implementation plan for the UNCRPD needs to be ambitious, robust and outline specific and measurable targets.

A key deliverable, as part of the programme for Government, is the development by the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth of a plan for the implementation of the UNCRPD. It is important that the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Disability Matters focuses on and promotes the importance of a joined-up collaborative approach between Government and those delivering this implementation. There is also a need for a co-ordinated cross-departmental approach to disability and the implementation of the UNCRPD.

 One crucial aspect of the convention's implementation is the ratification of the optional protocol. The benefit of the optional protocol is that individuals or groups of individuals can make direct complaints against the State to ensure that their rights are being realised under the UNCRPD, and that they can lodge a complaint themselves. The majority of European countries have ratified the optional protocol and Ireland should follow suit.

My colleague, Ms Browne, will continue with our statement.