Finian McGrath (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have just come from a Cabinet meeting. The Cabinet has agreed to formally ratify the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Today's Government decision is a significant milestone. I am delighted that my colleagues in government have supported me in deciding that the Convention should be ratified by Ireland. We will be returning to this at the next Government meeting to put the formal process in train and I am confident that all the necessary administrative processes will be completed within a few weeks.

My focus, as the Members all know, has been to promote and protect the enjoyment of human rights by all of our citizens and in this case, on the UN Convention, for all people with a disability.

I also welcome the progress made in recent weeks and months on the drafting of legislation by the Department of Health on the deprivation of liberty. It is a positive development and testament to the fact that genuine progress on meeting the needs and rights of people with disabilities is being made.

Deprivation of liberty is a sensitive and important matter which goes to the heart of fundamental freedoms and human rights. Legislative proposals in this area will have significant implications for families, the operation of the health services and the courts. It is important the people fully understand what is being proposed. In this regard, I will be inviting submissions from stakeholders and the general public.

We are making good progress in making all of the Convention's requirements operational in Ireland in an appropriate manner. Considerable progress has been made to overcome the remaining legislative barriers to Ireland's full implementation of the Convention as set out in the 2015 roadmap. The Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015 was signed into law on 30 December 2015 and is a comprehensive reform of the law on decision-making capacity. Section 5 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 1993 was reformed through a 2017 Act of the same name to facilitate the full participation in family life of persons with intellectual disabilities and the full expression of their human rights.

There are two further priority implementation issues. These are the enactment of the Disability (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2016 and the commencement of the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015 which requires the Decision Support Service to be operational and ready to roll out the new decision-making support options. The 2018 budget provided an allocation of €3 million for the establishment of the Decision Support Service. I am also delighted to announced that we appointed the director of the Decision Support Service in October.

In the meantime, I am continuing to take a wide range of practical measures to improve the lives of people with disabilities. The report of the Make Work Pay Group was published in April of this year and already action, as announced by the Minister, Deputy Harris, has been taken on its recommendations. We have a comprehensive employment strategy in place and 2017 has seen positive action measures being taken to support public sector recruitment of people with disabilities. In July of this year I published the disability inclusion strategy containing a wide range of practical commitments to improve the lives of people with disabilities. There are over 114 recommendations and already many of these are being implemented.

I promised that we would ratify the UNCRPD and I am delivering on that promise tonight with the support of the Government.

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