Ms Kathleen O'Meara:

My colleague, Brendan Lennon, will respond to the matter raised by Senator Colm Burke. I will respond to Deputy O'Reilly. The adverse impact of the delay is primarily on people. The Deputy might have seen the demonstration here about a month ago. There was a very good turnout for that. It could have been greater if people were able to travel and so forth. It gave an indication of how people feel. This delay is telling them, in effect, that they are not important. I will not go so far as to say second class citizens, but they are not being treated the same as everybody else. Let us face it, there is already much evidence of that. When the Government says that it is committed to ratifying the convention, that it will do so by the end of 2016 or so and it still has not happened, how are they expected to feel about it? One of the main adverse impacts is on the people themselves.

What difference would it make? It does not open a locked door. However, I point to what my colleagues have mentioned, that ratification represents a real shift to a rights-based approach, rather than a charitable approach. It embeds it strongly there. The legal changes taking place in the legislative programme that must accompany the ratification make a difference. There is the right to health. That is a huge one in health today. There is also housing. How many people with disabilities wish to live in their own home? Many do, but they do not get to do that. Yes, there is a housing crisis across the country but people with disabilities are at the bottom of the list for access to housing. There is the right to employment. The rate of employment among people with disabilities is very low. Again, they are at the bottom of the list. There is much to be done in that area.

One of the big issues is accountability and the UN committee to which the Government must report on what it has and has not done. As we know, we are not great at accountability in this country and sometimes a body outside the country is required to hold the Government to account. That is very welcome as part of the ratification.