Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I have a positive suggestion in the context of something the Department could do, namely, take the lead role in the area of disability rights and services. Even today, two Deputies raised various issues of mental health and disability services on Leaders' Questions while carers were protesting outside about what they did not get in the rather miserable budget. This morning, two disability activists were removed from Connolly Station following their ongoing campaign to highlight the constant breakdown of lifts at DART stations, a matter I raised last week only for more lifts - ten in total - to be broken last weekend than ever before.l. The lift at Seapoint in my area has been out of service for months. The list goes on and there are many issues. Activists state that disability issues are dealt with by the Departments of Education and Skills, Employment Affairs and Social Protection and Health but nobody takes the overview of driving through the commitment to equality as enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The Department of the Taoiseach is ideally suited to this role as it could afford it the importance and significance it deserves in order to achieve equality and real rights for people with disabilities.

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