Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Tacaim leis an moladh atá déanta ag an Seanadóir Bacik go mbeadh díospóireacht againn maidir le cúrsaí foiréigin baile. Is ceist í atá ardaithe againn go rialta sna Tithe seo agus is ceist fíorthábhachtach í. I also welcome the launch of the SAFE Ireland report this morning. Last Friday in Galway Domestic Violence Response launched a billeog as Gaeilge on issues surrounding domestic violence. That debate will be very important. We should note that the Government has severely cut back resources for domestic violence response organisations and that part of the issue is that these bodies are suffering from a lack of resources to deal with the ever-increasing number of telephone calls and representations they are receiving.

I note a very strong opinion piece in The Irish Timestoday by representatives of the Centre for Independent Living on Ireland's need to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This is an issue that has been raised with me by a local school, Tigh Nan Dooley. I have also spoken of late to people from Inclusion Ireland about the issue. Eight years ago Ireland signed but did not ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which has since been ratified by 156 countries. The Government continues to argue that it cannot ratify it until we are in compliance with it, specifically Article 12. It also contends that new capacity legislation must be passed. According to the article, it has had more than a decade to get its ducks in a row and, from a legal perspective, there is no impediment to the State ratifying the convention. The article also contends that the Government's failure to ratify the convention is based on policy grounds alone. By signing the convention the State has signified its intention to ratify it. According to Article 18 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, the State is obliged to refrain from acts which would defeat the object or purpose of the treaty. It is outlined in the article to which I have referred that all of the cuts in the past eight years to supports for persons who wish to live independently - they include mobility allowance, the motorised transport grant, benefit allowance, medical cards, etc. - without providing for similar or better alternatives constitute a breach of Ireland's obligations under the convention, despite the lack of ratification. Therefore, it would be pertinent for us to have a debate on the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities and when the Government intends to ratify it.