Dr. Aideen Hartney:

I thank the Deputy for the questions. In regard to the optional protocol, our previous advice was that while it is an important goal and is certainly an important mechanism for states to be held accountable for commitments they may not have met, it is to be triggered only when all national remedies have been exhausted. Those national remedies are still available for people with disabilities. In the meantime it probably should be an action or a key priority under the development of a new UNCRPD implementation strategy that the State would move to ratify at the earliest opportunity. Progress has been made on some of the issues that were being put in place to allow for ratification. Hopefully, that progress will continue.

Like Ms Dempsey-Clifford, I cannot state with any certainty the reason the NDIS was not extended for a further year. The Department had already extended it from the end of 2021 to the end of 2022. It is mindful of the signal it would send if strategies are just continually extended rather than creating or giving focused attention to the development of successor instruments. There have been ongoing challenges in regard to the resources available to Departments to put towards this work and also other equality strategies of which the Department is steward came to an end in 2022. Given that disability is an equality ground, and given the importance of intersectionality, it makes a fair bit of sense for those strategies to have similar lifetimes. That might have been some of the thinking behind it.

The Deputy asked about the code of practice on accessible public buildings. Under our founding legislation the NDA can be instructed, or requested, by a Minister to develop a code of practice which provides a series of formalised guidelines for public bodies to follow. This code is to guide public bodies on how they can meet their obligations. In the disability Act, on having accessible buildings, these are buildings that are accessed and used by the public and under the stewardship of a public body. We hope the code will shortly be finalised and submitted to the Minister for approval. It sets out some practical suggestions as to how a public body might manage access to its building from the point of the approach through to circulation spaces.

It will address the needs of varying disabilities and hopefully make for a more accessible and inclusive experience for anyone accessing these buildings. Once it is approved by the Minister, the hope is we will be instructed to monitor compliance with the code. We are considering a series of measures that would allow us to do that. Throughout our monitoring work, we find the presentation of that data and information is very effective in concentrating minds and encouraging public bodies to do the best they can.