Mr. John Dolan:

Senator Clonan asked about other legislative initiatives. I will be modest in my request. I wish the legislation that was passed by the Oireachtas over the past ten to 20 years were fully commenced. This includes the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004, the Disability Act 2005, the Citizens Information Act 2007, the Public Transport Regulation Act 2009 and the measures introduced in the past five to ten years by this Oireachtas and the previous one. Ensuring all those measures are fully commenced is one simple thing that could be done. There is a lack of respect for legislation that has been passed by the Houses in not having it properly implemented. I can provide the committee with the full list of legislative provisions.

I cannot figure out why there has been a reluctance to ratify the optional protocol to the UNCRPD. The night the current Tánaiste was elected Taoiseach on 14 June 2017, he said, "I will ratify the UN convention within six months, even if it means a change of approach." He was alluding to the fact there was always a view that we cannot ratify the convention until all our legislative ducks are lined up. That is codswallop as far as I am concerned. The UNCRPD is all about progressive realisation. It is not about having everything done and then having a party to say it has all been realised. It is about states getting on the road to making it happen, which includes legislative change as well as practical changes that impact on people's lives.

Mr. Sinnott's case, which was vehemently opposed by the Department of Education, came 25 years after two cases in the early 1990s, the O'Donovan and Sinnott cases, in which the Department vehemently opposed the right of children with disabilities to get an education. It was stated that these children were ineducable. There is a nasty overhang of that culture in our system and people need to be eyeballed on it. Sadly, a quarter of a century after those cases, it is still going on.

I am not as pessimistic as Mr. Sinnott in regard to DPOs. There are lots of organisations that have the hallmarks of a DPO but do not necessarily call themselves that. This does not take one iota from the need for a stronger collective of DPOs to be involved in the implementation of the convention and the engagement with the Oireachtas and other forums.