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

The point I was trying to make is that there are loads of violations of the UNCRPD without the optional protocol. The Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act was the excuse that was used for a long time. The Minister does not even know what the next excuse will be, but there is a scoping exercise in train to figure out what form it will take. At that point, we will again fail to ratify. I am merely trying to outline what is happening. It is nearly three years since the general election, and it took that long to bring the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Act 2022 into force. Now we are looking to see what else we might need to deal with before we proceed. I presume it will take that long again to move to ratification.

In terms of the reservations, the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Act 2022 violates the UNCRPD by allowing for substitute decision-making. The Minister has previously attempted to dispute that. In that context, he was publicly corrected by the vice chair of the UNCRPD committee. The legal reason that the Minister can breach this right is because of Ireland's reservation to the UNCRPD regarding Article 12. That reservation means that the State does not have to recognise legal capacity as an absolute right. This is not something that is publicly known. I was not fully aware of it. Am I right in thinking that the State party report the Minister has submitted to the UNCRPD outlined that this reservation will be maintained and that the committee will probably recommend its withdrawal because it has done so in the cases of Canada, Kuwait and Singapore? Why is the Government committed to that reservation and its limitation of decision-making rights? How will the Minister or, presumably, his successor explain to the UNCRPD committee that we want to keep that reservation?