Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth was chastised, for want of a better word, by the UN in the context of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the lack of progress on inclusive education. It is, therefore, something that needs to be progressed. The NCSE has prepared a document and it was submitted to the Department, but I do not think we have got a departmental response as yet. I agree we need a plan on how that is going to work.

The ratification of the optional protocol comes up a lot as well. Dr. Hartney said it is a mechanism people can proceed with where all national avenues of appeal have been exhausted. She indicated awareness of national avenues may need to be made clearer. Whether it is disabled peopled advocating for themselves, including where their rights or needs are not being met, or parents advocating for the rights of their child, people are in many cases totally exhausted. They have been fighting the fight since day one and the process through the WRC, if people are aware of it, is often protracted and this is very off-putting. There may or may not be costs attached as well and this may be prohibitive. Is there anything to be done to make the whole process somewhat easier for people? None of us will go near the courts if we can avoid it on any issue, because there is a huge backlog, it takes so long, one is going back and forth and then there is the cost, as I said.

Is that an issue as well? Is the thought of a legal process off-putting for people who already had to fight for everything they have got and still have not got what they need?