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

This Friday is International Day of Persons with Disabilities, the day to promote the rights and well-being of people with disabilities and celebrate their contributions to communities and society. I thank the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this Topical Issue for debate. The optional protocol to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, CRPD, allows individuals and groups to hold states to account for failures to uphold their rights. Ms Sinéad Gibney, chief commissioner of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, IHREC, has stated:

'Optional Protocol' is a technical term that unfortunately does a disservice to its meaning and significance, and which masks the urgent need for action for people with disabilities and our society. The Protocol is about empowering people with disabilities.

Far from being optional, it is a crucial tool for the convention's implementation, which provides more local remedies and removes discriminatory laws and practices.

While the language is technical and it can seem divorced from everyday life, this is incredibly important to help strengthen the rights of people with disabilities.

Disability services, or the inadequacy of them, is an issue I am contacted about practically daily from people across Cork South-West and beyond. I know that other Deputies and the Minister of State have a similar experience. We hear accounts of children who cannot access vital therapies or the children disability network teams waiting lists, of families unable to get suitable housing and of older people forced into nursing homes due to a lack of home supports.

At the Joint Committee on Disability Matters, our current module is dealing directly with the lived experiences of people with disabilities and their carers. What one hears each week is more disgraceful and enraging than what one heard the previous week, as individuals and families tell us about having to fight for access to and then maintain basic services. I regret to say that I have come to the conclusion that we do not have a rights-based approach to disability; rather, we have a budget-based model. Services, supports, and opportunities are decided on the basis of Government budgets, not human rights. It is worth noting that we can afford to address these matters. In a rights-based system, when people are entitled to a service, they receive it, from SNAs to carers respite to accessible transport. What is happening in Ireland is so very far from this.

In dealing with all of this week after week, I keep coming back to the importance of the protocol in holding the State accountable for the deficiencies in services and for the barriers individuals face. The programme for Government includes ratifying the protocol, and the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth reiterates his commitment every time I ask him about the process. However, there is no sense of priority.

Disgracefully, it took Ireland more than ten years to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Individuals, communities and advocacy organisations are all deeply concerned that ratification of the optional protocol is also years away. People with disabilities cannot wait that long in order to be able to guarantee their rights. In June, the Chief Commissioner of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission wrote to the Minister of State and the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, to emphasise the need to adopt the optional protocol as a matter of urgency.

We have discussed this extensively at meetings of the Joint Committee on Disability Matters. It is clear that this is a political decision. We have heard from different experts, including the UN special rapporteur, who have clearly said that the optional protocol can be ratified immediately. I am sure the Minister of State will mention issues such the commencement of the Assisted Decision Making (Capacity) Act 2015 and the establishment of the decision support services, which are very welcome. However, these are the latest delays presented by Departments. Ratification can and should happen immediately. Will the Minister of State please push for this?

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