Eugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Although I will not need 20 minutes, it was important to avail of a short space of time to make a contribution on people with disabilities. I acknowledge the role the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, played for many years fighting for people in the disability sector. Long before I became a Member of the House I was aware of his fight for people with disabilities. As Minister of State, he has a serious responsibility. He is linking up with many groups up and down the country. Like my colleagues, I welcome the Bill. While there are shortcomings in it, we are on the right road and we must move as quickly as possible.

As has been pointed out, Ireland signed the CRPD in 2007. Since then, successive Governments have emphasised Ireland's commitment to proceed to ratification as quickly as possible, taking into account the need to ensure all necessary legislative requirements under the convention are met.

The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its optional protocol were adopted on 13 December 2006 at the Headquarters of the United Nations in New York and were opened for signature on 13 March 2007. I disagree slightly with my good friend Deputy Boyd Barrett, in that Fianna Fáil does not have a difficulty with this and never tried to hold up the signing of the convention. It is extremely important and we must put it into its proper position as soon as possible.

There were 82 signatories to the convention, 44 signatories to the optional protocol and one ratification of the convention. This was the highest number of signatories in history to a UN convention. It is the first comprehensive human rights treaty of the 21st century and is the first human rights convention to be open for signature by regional integration organisations. The convention entered into force on 3 May 2008.

Some points have already been made, but I will make a few general points that I consider to be important. It is good that the Bill is before the House but I believe it is incomplete in some areas. The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission is worried that a significant number of provisions in the Bill are due to be introduced on Committee Stage as amendments, which significantly limits the scope for a detailed analysis upon which meaningful commentary can be provided by the commission. The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission has stated this problem is especially acute in respect of the deprivation of liberty aspect of the Bill. It went on to note:

The human rights and equality implications of how deprivation of liberty is regulated are highly dependent upon the processes and safeguards which will accompany the provision. In order to carry out a meaningful analysis of the adequacy of safeguards from a human rights and equality perspective, it is necessary to consider the particulars of the proposal; including for example, the scope of the reform [which is critical], how detention will be reviewed, the particulars of an appeal mechanism together with the remedies proposed to allow a person to obtain appropriate redress and reparation. In the absence of published draft legislation, it is difficult for the Commission to discharge its function to examine legislative proposals under Article 10(2)(e) of the 2014 Act and to make concrete recommendations which can be of utility to the legislature, particularly in relation to this aspect of reform.

This concern is also shared by Inclusion Ireland, which states:

Legislative clarity is required on the issue of deprivation of liberty. Persons can only be detained in accordance with law e.g. prisoners, involuntary mental patients but in Ireland, persons may be de facto detained not in accordance with law.

These are some of the concerns and others already have been mentioned. I hope the Minister of State will be able to address those matters in the Bill. Fianna Fáil's spokesperson on disability, Deputy Margaret Murphy O'Mahony, also will bring forward amendments on aspects of the Bill.

I will now turn to Fianna Fáil's involvement in standing up for people with disability. We all must acknowledge that more could have been done by everybody but our party has always been committed to creating a more inclusive society and to dismantling barriers across a range of sectors that prevent people with disability from fully participating in society. We all must accept that those barriers have been there for many years. We are now in the process - and getting on well with it - of breaking down those barriers. We need to ensure that people with disabilities are given equality of opportunity so they can participate in society to the best of their wonderful abilities. Fianna Fáil has always been committed to fighting discrimination in all forms. When in government, Fianna Fáil brought forward policies and legislation to advance the rights of people with disabilities. Our vision and proactive approach in government has made a positive impact on the lives of people with disabilities. I will not go into some of the procedures and laws we brought forward but they are there to be seen. They were not enough but they certainly were of help and brought forward this debate over many years, especially when Fianna Fáil was in government.

On a more general point, I have a serious issue with members of the public taking up parking spaces that are allocated for people who have a disability. The facility is abused all over the State. In some towns the law may not be able to deal with it but I would hope that somewhere in the Bill we would look again at parking spaces that are for people with a disability and that the spaces are not abused by other members of the public. It is horrendous. I witnessed such a scene in my town recently where a person with a disability came around to use such a space and it had been taken up by a car, which was driven by a person without a disability. What was worse, the person who had a severe disability had to park almost 400 yd. away, down off a main street, and had to come back a distance in order to conduct her business in the town. I saw this scenario in action and it is deplorable. I condemn those members of the public who willy-nilly drive into these spaces that by law, are there for people who have a disability. I appeal to those of us who do not have a disability to never, ever take up those spaces.

There is an issue with waste refuse services when people have disabilities, both for older people and families who have children with autism. If incontinence is an issue there are disposable nappies and the refuse charges are enormous in this regard. Obviously, people must look after their sick family members. The Minister of State should consider a scheme that could help those people. It is an enormous financial cost on many families and I hear about it a lot in my clinic. I would love if we could do something about this. I do not know if anything could be done in the Bill, but perhaps the Minister of State could discuss it with his Cabinet colleagues and consider a scheme that might, in some way, aid people who are under severe financial strain because of these costs. Maybe action could be taken, in conjunction with local authorities, to help these people.

I will conclude by paying the highest compliment possible to those parents, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters of people who have a disability. In general, Irish families are outstanding in looking after people with disability. We also must acknowledge the generosity of members of the wider public, who constantly annually fundraise for so many causes that support people with disability. Without their effort we would not have many of the services that are in place. While acknowledging the State's role, grant assistance etc., where would we be without those volunteers? Many of those who are involved in the voluntary sector do not have a family member with a disability. This is a tremendous testament to the people who do such work in a voluntary capacity, as well as to the many businesses nationwide who give so much to local community groups who try to help with facilities for people with disability. I think of all the groups in my native town of Strokestown, in Castlerea and in the Roscommon area with the Hub group, the Brothers of Charity services among others, as well as St. Christopher's Services in Longford, of which I am sure the Minister of State is aware. There is huge voluntary effort going in to all of these groups to make life better for those who have a disability. I salute those people here today and congratulate them. I urge more people to come on board to assist in whatever way they can in making life better for members of society who have a disability and to help their families. Sometimes it is not always possible to get the amount of respite care that is needed.

Often, it is family and friends who come in to help parents with respite care.

I wish the Minister of State well with the Bill and want to let him know that amendments will be put forward from this side. I wish him well with his job. We hope the Government does not fall so he can put his programme in place.

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