Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)

I welcome any strategy that has human rights in it. I, therefore, welcome the National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People. However, if I go to the back of it, I see that there is a fundamental misunderstanding. On the last page, it states that their message is clear: people with disabilities want to be treated the same as everyone else. That is not accurate. They do not want to be treated the same as everyone else because that would not be treating them as people with a disability who need carefully planned services and carefully planned assistance. There is a fundamental misunderstanding there. Then, we go to the background to this. That is the human rights strategy.

Let me take the Minister of State back as quickly as I can in my two minutes and 30 seconds. In 1993, we had the Commission on the Status of People with Disabilities; in 2004, we had the National Disability Strategy; in 2005, we had the Disability Act, which the Government is utterly not complying with; and in 2007, we signed the UNCRPD, and ratified it in 2018. We signed the optional protocol in 2018. In 2012, we had Value for Money and Policy Review of Disability Services in Ireland. We had the National Disability Strategy Implementation Plan 2013-2015; the Comprehensive Employment Strategy for People with Disabilities; National Disability Inclusion Strategy; and so on. The Action Plan for Disability Services is taking us up to 2026. What did the Taoiseach tell us at the national dialogue? The system is not delivering for disabled people, despite all of that.

Now, we have a strategy, and the strategy has no plan. We are going to get the first plan in December. Is the Government on target for that? We have no idea where the monitoring committee is. Has it been set up?

Then, we look at the human rights. What does it tell us? The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, IHREC, stated that "Viewed on its own, the Strategy also does not include enough concrete actions and targeted measures to allow effective monitoring of implementation." It went on to state that it does not adequately address key issues central to the full implementation of the UN convention on rights, and that it does not include "access to justice, inclusive education and the need to urgently address institutional safeguarding issues." AHEAD, the NGO, stated that the strategy commitments are often aspirational and in many areas, there is little detail with concrete evidence - I am losing my words here I am going so quickly - and that disabled persons organisations are highlighted but they are under-resourced and understaffed.

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