Ms Joanne Condon:

In terms of reservations, we have focused largely on the importance of the guiding principles and that any review process of the Act really does need to examine how well the adherence to those guiding principles is working.

This Act is very much about bringing Ireland into alignment with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. To draw the committee's attention to Article 12 specifically, it places emphasis on the fact that disabled people should have access to the supports they require, where necessary, to exercise their rights and autonomy. For us, as an advocacy service, it is critical in terms of the outworking of the Act that people can access advocates if and when they need them. That is currently not the case because we have waiting lists. There has not been adequate attention paid thus far to the resourcing of the supports under Article 12 that may be required outside of the formal structures of decision-making. The guiding principles all focus on, as we have already alluded to, people being supported to make their own decisions first and foremost and building their own decision-making muscle to make their own decisions every day without ever going near any of the formal structures. The reality for lots of people we meet, however, is that to have information to understand systems and rights, they often need somebody to do that with them. For those who may not have natural supports in their life, that role often falls to advocacy services. Unfortunately, there really has not been any focus to date. Outside of recognising the role of advocacy, there has not been a strategy or resource plan to make sure that, under Article 12, people can access those rights. I think that is something that really does need to be examined more closely.