Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Before I address the Deputy's amendment, I wish to say I may table further amendments to this section to deal with the pension provisions of staff of the NDA. These are being discussed with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform at the moment.

Amendment No. 36 proposes to delete section 84 of the Bill in its entirety. This section makes amendments to the National Disability Authority Act 1999. I wish to split this up into two elements. The first element results in maybe a misinterpretation of what is being attempted here, and this came up in quite a few of the Second Stage speeches. Section 84(1)(a) a provides that the NDA will be obliged to provide advice and statistical information to IHREC in the conduct of IHREC's role as the national monitoring body for the CRPD. A decision has been made that IHREC will be the monitoring body. All this section seeks to do is to facilitate the disability support service, DSS, to be able to give them information. There was some suggestion that the provision obliges IHREC to engage in consultation with the NDA at the expense of persons with disabilities or disabled persons' organisations. That is an incorrect interpretation of this provision. The actual effect is to oblige the NDA to assist IHREC with the provision of expert advice and statistical data.

It is not a consultation provision and it certainly does not imply any exclusivity in terms of consultation. Both the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, IHREC, and the National Disability Authority, NDA, can, should and do engage in extensive consultation with persons with disabilities. We have discussed some of that issue with the NDA's disability support service, DSS, already. I propose to bring forward a provision to offer greater guidelines there. However, I want to stress that a change to the scenario is neither the intention nor the legal effect of this provision. The deletion of this provision is undesirable, because this provision, as drafted, will assist IHREC in performing that body's functions. It will allow the NDA to do that.

In addition, amendment No. 36 proposes to delete the remainder of section 84 of the Bill. It is not clear to me what is objectionable in the remainder of section 84. This section provides that the staff of the National Disability Authority will become civil servants of the State. It sets out the necessary technical amendments for that to occur. Staff of the NDA are currently public servants, so the proposed change is a largely administrative one. It will introduce administrative efficiencies and savings from a HR perspective. I do not see what is objectionable about that. I hope I have clarified this about the first part of section 84. As well as this, if I were to delete the rest of section 84 on the NDA, there would be an impact on NDA employees. Therefore I cannot support this amendment.