Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I would like to welcome everybody in the Gallery. It is always good to see people there. I cautiously welcome the motion, which will allow us to finally ratify the UNCRPD after a long and arduous battle. I sincerely hope that the political will to address the human rights of people with disabilities, which has been absent for a very long time, will emerge in a real and meaningful way. I urge the Government to agree to sign up to the UNCRPD optional protocol as an indication of its commitment to the right of people with disabilities to complain to the UN about issues in respect of which the State may be in breach in the context of the UNCRPD. This will also provide an important advocacy tool for people concerned about violations of their rights.

I pay tribute to the many disability activists who have fought with courage and determination to get us to this point. I particularly want to remember and acknowledge the work of disability activists who are no longer with us. I refer to people like Mr. Martin Naughton, Mr. Donal Toolan and Mr. John Doyle, who participated in many campaigns that sought to win full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms for all persons with disabilities. They challenged us to understand disability as a human rights issue. Finally ratifying the UNCRPD will be a lasting tribute to their work.

It is shocking that it has taken so long to get to this point. Many people with disabilities have suffered as a result. The motion to ratify without having made the necessary legislative amendments highlights the misleading and untrue nature of the statements that the Government has presented year after year as an excuse for not ratifying the convention. It worries me that the legislative amendments have still not been made, and I am concerned about the barriers this will present to full compliance with the UNCRPD. However, I believe that an explanation and an apology should be offered to people with disabilities for using this excuse as a delay of ratification, when in fact ratification could have proceeded a long time ago.

As Ireland is the last EU member state to ratify the UNCRPD, the Government has a lot of work to do to introduce the rage of measures needed to ensure that people with disabilities have full and equal rights to participate in society as all other citizens do.

Once Ireland has ratified the UNCRPD, quite correctly, we will be monitored and examined by the UN. We should immediately take on board the lessons of our closest neighbour, the UK, in terms of its performance in regard to the UNCRPD.

A report published in 2016 by the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities found that Britain's austerity policies "systematically violated" the rights of disabled people. In this country, successive Governments' policies of austerity disproportionately affected people with disabilities, many of whom were already living on incomes below the poverty threshold. With cuts to vital services, independence payments, independent living funds, respite care grants, education supports and transport, many people with disabilities, who also experience higher levels of unemployment, are now living in far worse positions than they ever were. Poverty and the rate of consistent poverty among people with disabilities have increased.

In conclusion, I call on the Government to publish, as a matter of urgency, a clear deadline for the completion of all remaining areas of law which remain as legislative barriers to full ratification of the UNCRPD.

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