Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased to have an opportunity to speak on the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Bill 2014 and thank the Minister for introducing it to the House.

I welcome the Bill. There has been significant debate in various European countries over whether it is appropriate to merge an equality body and a human rights institution. There are two sides to the argument, but some countries that have already done this have seen strong advantages in terms of developing a comprehensive approach to both equality and human rights and preventing any risk of fragmentation. I believe the idea of merging the two bodies and bringing them together under one commission with real teeth is a welcome development.

This is just one of the latest areas the Minister has reformed in the context of ensuring equality and better treatment of need in equality in this country. One area of change for which the Minister will always be remembered here is the citizenship ceremony. I was honoured to attend one of these ceremonies in the Convention Centre with the Minister some months ago and saw how this new ceremony has transformed the purpose of citizenship and given a status to citizenship for new citizens. Just compare this with what we had previously, when new citizens had to sit at the back of a court, with criminals and potential criminals, and wait to be called up in front of a judge. That was not the "Céad míle fáilte" this country is known for. The change to a citizenship ceremony is welcome.

I also commend the work done by the Minister during the Irish Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the area of equality and human rights and the tackling of hate crimes, racism, xenophobia, homophobia and anti-Semitism. This work has borne fruit, as can be seen now from the Council conclusions during the Irish Presidency and, most recently, the Commission's communication on this issue, which will put a new framework in place in terms of how European countries can work together to tackle issues such as inequality, hate crime, racism, xenophobia and homophobia.

While many politicians talk about inequality, anti-Semitism or being discriminated against, the Minister has obviously experienced it in a very real, disgusting, intolerable and unacceptable way in recent days.

This Bill is very welcome and I will focus on one of the grounds listed in equality legislation, namely disability. For far too long this State, regardless of who is in government and which element of bureaucracy is at play, our approach to people with disabilities is to provide them with a social welfare cheque. That is both economically stupid and morally reprehensible. Although so many people with disabilities want to work and play their part in society, and they have a major part to play, we have been far too slow to ensure they can access the workplace. I hope we can focus on this as a government. Today is national job shadow day with the Irish Association of Supported Employment and I am delighted to be joined in the Visitors Gallery by a young man, Conor Coffey, who is shadowing me for the day. He epitomises the message that there are so many people with disabilities who have a role to play.

For far too long, general elections have come and gone. The first politician who knocks on the door promises, if elected, to increase the disability allowance by €5, the next promises to increase it by €5.50. Although money matters, it misses the broad point that this country has consistently failed to put structures in place to enable people with disabilities to access the workforce. That is a clear breach of their human rights and entitlement to equality in this Republic. While I welcome the work being done in this area and the Minister's Department by the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, we need a supported employment strategy. We need to help people with disabilities access the workforce and play their part. I urge the Minister to do that.

Some of Deputy Clare Daly's points on disability were correct and we need to heed them. Up to last year, special needs education policy had not been reviewed since 1993. We went through all the years of economic boom and threw lots of money, some of it badly needed, into special needs education, but we never stopped and asked whether the structures were correct. This Government is trying to untangle that. When we consider equality issues - and I am taking the example of disability - we need to see it as a cross-governmental and cross-departmental effort. We need to move beyond that politically-driven and media-driven argument that everything comes back to euro and cent. If that were the case, people with disabilities would have had all their challenges overcome during the Celtic tiger years. They did not because we were so obsessed with just funding levels rather than asking what we were funding and whether structures were adequate. The Minister is trying to rectify that by examining two agencies that have served this country well but are no longer fit for purpose and the times in which we live, and by bringing them together in a streamlined fashion to deliver a better structure regarding human rights and equality.

We need to examine a range of legislation where the language in place is stigmatising, offensive, outdated and disgusting. The Minister has done great work on the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Bill, which will finally remove the horrendous Lunacy Act from our Statute Book and replace it with modern legislation and wording. There is more to be done. I am a co-author of the cross-party Mental Health (Anti-Discrimination) Bill which has support from members of all parties and the independent group in this House and which examines the stigmatising language across a range of Acts passed by these Houses in the past. For example, a person with a mental illness cannot win the national lottery, access credit, access insurance or be a Member of this House. These are the sort of laws that remain on our Statute Book in 21st century Ireland. Let us establish a new human rights and equality commission and continue with the reforming zeal the Minister has shown in this area. Let us also look across all the silos that operate in our bureaucracy where there is still stigmatising language in place which contributes to inequality and a breach of people's human rights.

The Minister is very conscious of direct provision and he and his Department have been working on reducing the number of people in direct provision and the length of time people spend in it. Direct provision is an abhorrent practice. It was meant to be a very short-term provision for dealing with people seeking asylum in our country. However childhoods are being lost in direct provision. Children are spending their entire childhoods in direct provision. The only people benefiting are private operators, which are funded by taxpayers. I raised this issue with the Secretary General of the Department of Justice and Equality at the Committee of Public Accounts a number of weeks ago and I know the Minister and his Department are working on it.

On the membership of the human rights and equality commission I ask the Minister to consider the very important mantra, "nothing about us without us". While I welcome the fact that the membership will have gender equality, in the past we have heard service providers speaking on behalf of people with disabilities rather than hearing from people with disabilities. There is an advisory group, and that is welcome. The Minister does not want to be too prescriptive about narrowing the pool of people who can serve on the commission and I respect that. We need our best and brightest. However we also need people who can talk about some of these issues based on their direct life experiences rather than just abstract concepts. I ask the Minister to consider that.

This is another step forward in reforming an area that badly needs reform. We cannot become complacent. In recent days and weeks there have been a number of attacks and assaults on people's liberties and breaches of various equality legislation. I very much welcome the Government's commitment to hold a referendum on marriage equality next year. I look forward to actively supporting that and campaigning in favour of it and I welcome the Minister's personal commitment to that issue. I encourage the Minister to continue to do what he is doing in Europe in terms of examining how we can work together in a pan-European way to learn from each other about how we deal with equality and human rights. I commend the legislation to the House and ask that the Minister note my comments.

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