Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank all of the witnesses for attending. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities obliges the State to closely consult with and actively involve disabled people, including children with disabilities, through their representative organisations. This is an incredibly important provision and one that very clearly the Irish State is not adhering to. The Disabled Persons Organisations Network rightly noted that the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill has been developed without proper engagement with DPOs. In addition, the disability support services have produced draft codes of conduct without the involvement of DPOs. Therefore, if the Department that oversees the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities cannot get this right, then we are right to wonder what hope there is for the rest of Government.

I am a member of the Joint Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. I want to let the witnesses know that the committee has just finished its report on the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill and one of the recommendations is to immediately revisit the codes of conduct in consultation with DPOs. On Tuesday, I raised these concerns in terms of the Government's Electoral Reform Bill due to implications for facilitating disabled people participating in the democratic process and standing for election, which is an issue that has come up a lot during the conversation so far. The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage does not seem to have engaged at all with DPOs on this incredibly important matter either.

My first question is for Ms Browne and Ms Quigley and concerns a point they made in their opening statements. Can they outline whether Departments have engaged with DPOs on legislative or policy matters? How would they recommend Departments go about meaningful consultation in the future? If this committee is to hold Departments and public bodies to account, then any guidance they can give us on the standards they would expect, and we should all expect, would be very useful to this committee.

My next question is for Mr. Sinnott. All of the witnesses who have come before the committee mentioned that Ireland has not ratified the optional protocol of the convention. This committee is pushing the Government on that matter. I ask Mr. Sinnott to elaborate on the significance of ratifying the optional protocol as it would be useful for us to put that argument and reference what he says. If there is time, I will ask Mr. Kavanagh a question.