Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I should add to the actions that I mentioned earlier the fact that children in receipt of the domiciliary care allowance are now automatically entitled to a medical card. Ten thousand children who did not receive a medical card previously now have it as an automatic right. I pay tribute to the work of the Minister, Deputy Harris, and Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, in this regard. Thirty thousand young people with disabilities under the age of 16 years in receipt of domiciliary care allowance, DCA, are no longer subject to any review between receiving DCA and reaching the age of 16. That is some real progress with regard to the supports the State offers people with disabilities.

Regarding the convention, I share the Deputy's frustration that it is taking so long to ratify it. We have a different approach than other countries. That convention, for example, has been ratified by Romania and Italy. I do not think anyone would argue that people with disabilities are less disadvantaged in Romania or Italy than they are in Ireland.

The approach other countries follow, however, is to ratify first and implement later whereas we like to implement all the legal provisions first and then ratify, which is a much more meaningful approach. We are considering making an exception on this occasion for this particular convention because it is taking so long to ratify it. We will have a meeting quite soon, which will involve the key Ministers and the Attorney General, to see if we can adopt a different approach because we absolutely want to have the convention ratified by 3 December, as the Deputy has said.

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