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

I thank the committee members for the invitation to speak to and discuss this with them today. I acknowledge the significant cross-party work this committee does to vindicate the rights of persons with disabilities, particularly to advance that under the wider rubric of the UNCRPD. Once the transfer of functions to my Department is completed, I look forward to more and deeper engagement with the committee on these issues. I am happy to cover, in my opening remarks and in a wider discussion, the matters highlighted by the committee in its invitation to me, including the development of a successor strategy to the national disability inclusion strategy, NDIS, the ratification of the optional protocol to the UNCRPD and the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act.

To date, the national disability inclusion strategy has been the national framework for co-ordinating policy and action on disability issues. The NDIS covered a period from 2017 to 2022 and, as such, it ended in December this year. Following the conclusion of the NDIS, the focus of my Department is on the development of an ambitious successor strategy. Development of a new strategy is timely. Along with the need to create a successor to the NDIS, the programme for Government sets out a commitment to developing an implementation plan to co-ordinate the implementation of Ireland's commitments under the UNCRPD. I intend the new national strategy to satisfy this commitment. The development of the NDIS successor strategy is under way. Before the end of the NDIS framework, meetings of the national steering group facilitated presentations from my Department and the National Disability Authority on possible structures for the new framework and plans for meaningful, inclusive consultations. It is intended that the disability stakeholder group, which provided independent and expert monitoring of the implementation of the NDIS, will play an important role in the development of the successor strategy.

Work is focusing on capturing learning from the NDIS process and preparing for broad and targeted consultations for people with disabilities and organisations of persons with disabilities. I am conscious of the need to ensure all voices are heard and included in those consultations. My Department is working to design an inclusive process that will be cognisant of intersectional issues and capture the input of lived experience, disabled persons' organisations and the input of persons whose impairments may make participation in the usual consultation structures more difficult, such as those who may need communication assistance.

Based on feedback to date on the successes and challenges of the NDIS, the new strategy is expected to be more explicitly focused on outcomes. It will also necessarily concentrate on a tighter, more targeted number of ambitious actions that will deliver the most significant changes in progress. It will focus on those actions which will make the most difference in the day-to-day lives of persons with disabilities. Importantly, the strategy will require mature collaboration and sectoral leadership from across government and the wider public service. The convention envisions a societal shift as much as it requires action from a specific Government Department. As such, the new strategy will explicitly champion a mainstreaming first agenda, which I view as crucial for the meaningful integration of persons with disabilities into wider society.

From its own work, this committee will be aware of the necessity for a mainstream first approach and of the cross-cutting, whole-of-government and multilateral challenges this approach will generate. I would greatly appreciate the assistance of this committee and its views in championing and advancing this mainstream approach. Failure to advance a mainstream agenda and to cement the genuine sectoral responsibility and leadership people with disabilities need would be a fundamental failure of a new strategy and a missed opportunity to insert genuine cognisance of disability issues into the way in which we function as a society. That, more than anything else, is the aspiration and spirit of the convention. It is a transformation bigger than any single Department and it will require cross-sectoral support.

I want the new strategy to be a blueprint for genuine advancement. It therefore needs sufficient time at development stage if it is to deliver on our ambition and on the expectations of people with disabilities. I look forward to working with this committee and my colleagues across government in delivering this strategy.

Ratification of the optional protocol following the State's first review period before the UN committee is a commitment in the programme for Government. As committee members will be aware, Ireland submitted its first state report to the UNCRPD committee in November 2021. Due to delays at UN level, Ireland's appearance before the UN committee has been delayed. Due to this delay, the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, and I have indicated we are open to the earlier ratification of the optional protocol. Any decision to ratify an international agreement is subject to a long-standing policy on how the State enters into binding international treaties and is ultimately a decision taken by Cabinet as a whole.

My Department is currently working to scope out the requirements for early ratification of the protocol as recommended in consultation with the Department's legal advisers. This scoping work is required due to the long-standing position of the State with regard to its ability to honour international agreements. Its essence is an exercise in due diligence. As a matter of foreign policy, Ireland does not enter into binding international treaties until the State is confident the obligations set out in it can be complied with. It is also necessary as a matter of prudence and procedure to scope out any potential conflict with the proposed international treaty and the domestic legal system. It is thus appropriate we scope out the implications of ratifying the optional protocol.

My Department knows from the development of the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Act that commencement of the 2015 Act would be required for the ratification of the protocol. However, we need to scope fully the implications of ratification to guard against any other emerging issues or potential conflicts between legal procedures. This scoping exercise remains ongoing. I have instructed my officials to progress it as a priority over the coming weeks. At the moment, it is intended for that scoping process to be concluded by Easter. The outcome of the scoping process will determine how quickly it will be possible to ratify the protocol depending on what emerges from that analysis and what steps, if any, may need to be taken next.

There has already been engagement between officials in my Department, internal legal advisers, the Office of the Attorney General and the Department of Foreign Affairs on the protocol. This engagement will intensify as work progresses and especially as we make our way through the scoping exercise. I stress to Deputies and Senators that the purpose of the scoping exercise is a normal process of due diligence to ensure we can rule out any blocks to ratification. If we identify any barriers to ratification, we can look at how we can address and remove those barriers.

As members know, we always recognised that the continued existence of wardship was such a barrier, which is why, since I have come into this Department, my key focus has been the passing of the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Act 2022, which has now passed. To be very clear, speaking on my behalf and on behalf of the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, we are in favour of ratification of the protocol. We see the scoping work as necessary so that we can bring a properly analysed and robust proposal for ratifying the protocol to my Cabinet colleagues. While I cannot give an exact date for ratification today, I reiterate that it is a priority for Government to ensure the optional protocol is ratified rapidly as possible.

The Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Act 2022 represents seismic legal reform in the State and was the focus of priority work within my Department for much of the last year. Thanks to the efforts of all who worked on it, and with the assistance of Deputies and Senators across the Houses, the Act was signed into law by the President on 17 December last year. This will allow me to amend the 2015 Act so that the amended provisions of the 2015 Act can be commenced. This final step will abolish wardship and facilitate the full operationalisation of the decision support service, DSS. The DSS will be responsible for the operation of the new decision support system.

With the passage of the amendment Act over the coming weeks, I will have lawful authority to bring forward a number of statutory instruments under the 2022 and 2015 Acts that will pave the way for full commencement later this year. The passage of the amendment Act provides the lawful basis for certain procedures that will be necessary to finalise preparations for the abolition of wardship. This includes giving statutory approval for certain forms and processes that will be part of the new system, and for the making of necessary regulations which will be relied on within the new system. It is operationally necessary to do these final steps before full commencement, and these matters could not be progressed without the provisions of the amendment Act in place. I expect to be in a position to commence the assisted decision-making Acts fully early this year. My officials are consulting colleagues across government and the wider public service on operational preparedness, and I will shortly make an announcement publicising the date on which wardship will be abolished and the new system will take full effect.

I am pleased to be here this for morning's session and to be in a position to update the committee on the extensive work that took place over 2022 and the ambitious programme of work ahead of us for 2023. I look forward to working with the committee over the course of the year ahead in delivering on what I know is our shared objective, which is further advancing the rights and interests of disabled people in this country.