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

I thank the Deputy. The Government is committed to full ratification of the optional protocol. There is a process I have not veered away from since I became Minister of State which relates to two matters I referred to in my reply. The first is the general scheme of the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill 2021 that has gone to the Joint Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. I ask the joint committee to prioritise its consideration of that. I allocated funding in last year's and this year's budget for decision support services so that staff will be in place when the proposed legislation is passed, and decision support services will be operational. I am working with the disability stakeholder group and I am working on the national disability inclusion strategy. Interdepartmental groups meet on a quarterly basis.

Out of that, they meet every month where disability is a focus within their Department. I am asking them, parallel with what I am doing legislatively with the Members of the House, to ensure their Departments are doing the same. Before the end of this year, I will lay before the House the National Disability Authority, NDA, revision in respect of the Irish Sign Language Act, to see where it looked at every Department. What the NDA has done with regard to the Irish Sign Language Act is a really good barometer because it shows where disabilities within all Departments are open and that the Departments understand what it means about disability inclusion and participation and how the Departments can work to ensure that the mechanism is there.

I am not changing any goalposts. I have been very clear that if we cannot be before the UN convention because of the timing cycle, we have sent forward our papers. We have our decision support services in place. Those mechanisms are then in place for myself and the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, to ensure that the optional protocol is ratified.

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