Tom Clonan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this discussion. This is one of the most important committees and initiatives that is under way in Leinster House.

With regard to death and dying, and the fear that it engenders, we have all had experience of death. I have seen my parents die, and one of my sisters die. I have seen my daughter die. In another life, I have seen innocent men, women and children being slaughtered. I have seen death in its slow iteration, and I have seen it happen quickly and catastrophically to people. With regard to a good or bad death, I would like to postpone my own for as long as possible, if that is possible.

With specific reference to disabled citizens, my question is this: how can you make an empowered, equitable and equal decision about death and dying when your fundamental right to treatment is not legally protected, when your fundamental objective circumstances of living in this jurisdiction are not guaranteed by way of legislation or, as every other country in the European Union has done, by full ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities? That is where my concern lies.

This is about those issues of the fundamental rights of disabled people. We have dealt with the fundamental rights of other protected categories in Irish society, for example, in the marriage equality referendum, the repeal referendum and so on. I would appeal to the committee to bear in mind that there has to be a first-principles recognition of the fundamental legal rights of disabled citizens to live a full, active and fully participative life, where they can self-actualise in this life before they are confronted at some point with having to make a decision, however supported.

I am not squeamish about it and I do not have any ideological issues around it, but when it comes to equity and equality for disabled citizens, I think those fundamental functional, legal prerequisites, have to be dealt with. There is an opportunity for the Government in whatever is left of its lifetime. It has set out in the programme for Government that it will fully ratify all protocols. There is an opportunity to do that and we have to exert pressure on it. For a Minister to say that to vindicate the rights of disabled citizens to medical treatment would place an undue burden on the State is a scandalous observation to make, and I think it places any Minister who would make such a statement in breach of the 1954 Act on ministerial appointments and their seal of office. It is an extraordinary statement to make.

That is the frame and context within which I view this very important discussion, which I welcome. I thank the Chair for allowing me to speak and for his latitude today.