Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this very important question. He is quite correct in saying this is part of our commitments in the programme for Government.

The optional protocol to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is an international treaty that establishes two procedures aimed at strengthening the implementation and monitoring of the convention. The first is an individual communication procedure allowing individuals to bring petitions to the committee claiming breaches of their rights; the second is an inquiry procedure giving the committee authority to undertake inquiries of grave or systematic violations of the convention.

The programme for Government reiterates the commitment to ratify the optional protocol after the first reporting cycle. At a recent sitting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Disability Matters, the Secretary General of my Department advised members that both I and my colleague, the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, are open to an earlier ratification of the optional protocol. Our intention is to prepare for ratification of the optional protocol once the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015 has been commenced and the decision support service is operational. This is scheduled to take place in June or July of next year. A detailed process is needed to ensure Ireland's legislative provisions and redress mechanisms are sufficient to meet the obligations that will arise once Ireland opts into the optional protocol. The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth will work intensively to ensure that we can meet these obligations.

The Government recognises the importance of ensuring people with disabilities have all the appropriate channels to vindicate their rights. I am advancing the assisted decision-making (capacity) (amendment) Bill, which will include provisions necessary to enable the reform of capacity law contained in the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015 to become operational. The Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, has separately announced a review of the equality legislation, which prohibits discrimination, including against persons with disabilities. The review is intended to assess whether the equality legislation continues to be effective in protecting people against discrimination. The Minister will bring forward legislative proposals if necessary thereafter to strengthen the provisions of this legislation.

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