Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

People with disabilities in Ireland vastly and disproportionately experience greater poverty and social exclusion. Disgracefully, it took Ireland more than ten years to ratify the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and we are still awaiting the ratification of the optional protocol, which crucially enables people to enforce their rights acknowledged in the convention. The programme for Government commits to ratifying the optional protocol after the first reporting cycle, but it is now very likely this schedule will delay the ratification by several years. People with disabilities cannot wait that long to be able to guarantee their rights. Human rights and legal experts have told the Joint Committee on Disability Matters we can ratify the optional protocol immediately if the political will is there.

There is no reason for any further delay. Will the Government please prioritise the ratification of the optional protocol immediately?

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