Katherine Zappone (Independent) | Oireachtas source

An extremely significant meeting is taking place in Geneva this week in respect of the impact of the Government's austerity measures on the lives of citizens. In that context and as Senators are aware, the Government is being examined by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. As a new narrative develops in the lead-up to the forthcoming general election in the context of the stabilisation of Ireland's finances as a basis for future fairness, it is imperative that parliamentarians and the Irish people take account of what the UN committee is saying. Otherwise we will only be treating the UN process as simply a paper-pushing exercise. A primary message coming from the committee is that any cuts made as emergency crisis measures must be temporary and that what was taken away must be restored. For example, the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission and NGOs have put forward strong arguments in the context of demanding the restoration of the one-parent family income disregards to the levels at which they stood in 2012. One-parent families have become poorer since 2012 and the UN committee has not missed that fact.

My question to the Leader relates to how seriously the Government takes what various UN committees with responsibility for human rights say to us and why we, as lawmakers, are virtually excluded from having any oversight in respect of this country meeting its international human rights obligations. The Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Sherlock, is reporting to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights on the basis of a report compiled by all relevant Departments. However, we, as parliamentarians, have had no input whatsoever with regard to what the Minister of State is saying. In such circumstances, does what he is saying to the committee really mean anything at all? When questioned on RTE as to why the Government is not accepting the Constitutional Convention's recommendation to include economic, social and cultural rights in our Constitution, the Minister of State indicated that our corpus of domestic human rights law and EU law are sufficient to deal with those issues. I know at least one significant group in society, namely, one-parent families, which would vehemently disagree with his assertion.

Will the Leader please arrange a debate with the Minister of State, Deputy Sherlock, regarding the outcome recommendations of the UN committee in respect of Ireland? In the context of that debate, will the Leader ask the Minister of State how he intends to ensure elected representatives of the Irish State will be able to play a role in judging whether we are meeting our international human rights obligations?The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission has called for the establishment of an Oireachtas committee on human rights and equality. That would be a huge leap forward and it fits with my own work in having a sub-committee on human rights set up under the justice and equality committee. The Minister of State, Deputy Seán Sherlock, referred to his establishment of an interdepartmental working group of civil servants on human rights, but it does not include one parliamentarian, apart from himself. That is not good enough.