Margaret Murphy O'Mahony (Cork South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We are very organised.

I outlined in the House the day after the budget that while the €5 increase in payments across the board is welcome, it does not take into account the expenses incurred by those with disabilities. Disability makes many things more expensive for the person with the disability than for someone who does not have a disability. Survey on Income and Living Conditions, SILC, data show that the at-risk-of-poverty rates, poverty rates and deprivation rates of those with disabilities are all increasing. The obvious result of this is extreme poverty and social exclusion. Clearly, the additional costs associated with disability were not factored into the budget, and this creates huge hardships for the most vulnerable in our society.

Again, I find myself standing before the Minister reiterating the fact that we are yet to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This is despite our signing it in 2007. I brought this up with the Taoiseach under questions on promised legislation about a month ago, and he said the Government is just taking a different approach. It certainly is a different approach because while Ireland has not ratified the convention, every other EU country has ratified it. I was told this time last year by the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, that Ireland would ratify it by the end of 2016, then he said it would be the end of 2017. Here we are nearly at the end of 2017 and it has still not been ratified. I would like the Minister to keep this in mind and speak to her colleagues about it. That we are now the only country in the EU not to have ratified the convention is not a statistic of which to be proud. Will the Government assure me, once and for all, that this will be attended to without further delay?

People with disabilities are tired of being sidelined and denied a fair chance to participate in society on an equal footing.

The inequity in the pensions system must be addressed, the first step being to reverse the changes introduced in 2012 and it must be done sooner rather than later. My constituency office is inundated with people presenting with their pension contributions history record, utterly perplexed to discover they will be penalised for giving up work to raise children or because they left Ireland to seek employment abroad when work was not available at home. The gap in their contributions history brought about by these necessary life choices is only brought to their attention when they request a contributions history from the Department. Many of them are approaching pension age when they make that inquiry, at which point it is almost impossible to remedy the shortfall. It is very harsh that, contrary to their expectations, they are discovering they are not entitled to a contributory pension. Although there are plans to move to a total contributions approach by 2020, that will do nothing to facilitate those who already find themselves in this predicament. We need clarity on their situation and action to remedy it.

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