Dr. Aideen Hartney:

Progress has been made in some areas. For example, the enactment of the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Act 2022 was a very significant move forward. That allows for supported decision making which was a major gap in Ireland’s compliance with the convention prior to that. Gaps remain in that regard. There have been some delays. Some were in relation to the pandemic response, for example, because some of those functions sat under the Department of Health. More recently, the transfer of functions from that Department to the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth also delayed matters. We look forward to seeing progress resume in that regard. Reviews are also ongoing relating to the equality legislation and the Education of Persons with Special Educational Needs, EPSEN, Act. Those revisions and what comes of those will leave us in a better place. There are still areas which the State wishes to target. It would be for the Minister to decide at which point the work has progressed significantly enough to allow for comfort with ratification.