Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We do not have a date for it at this stage but it remains Government policy and it remains a Government commitment to do exactly that during this term in office of this Government. The Minister is reviewing the steps needed to allow the optional protocol to be ratified. We will not wait for an optional protocol to the UN Convention to be ratified to make improvements in the lives of people with disabilities.

We are doing that.

I have set out what we have done in education so far. We have come on in leaps and bounds from where we were not so long ago. I have set out what measures we have taken in social protection, including the increases people will see this week and also in December, January and throughout next year; the work we are doing to increase the number of people with disabilities in the workforce, including in the public sector, for which we have set an enhanced target; and the reforms we are trying to bring in to improve service provision in particular, which I accept is nowhere near where it needs to be. The real difficulty is not a lack of political will, funding or ambition; it is simply not being able to find the qualified, skilled staff we need to carry out the assessments and provide the therapies people with disabilities need.

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