Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome an tAire Stáit. We are in a new Chamber and I hope we will be here for 12 to 18 months while work is continuing in the other Chamber.

I would like to inform the House of my perspective of this issue as someone who suffers from a serious vision impairment. Senator Victor Boyhan spoke about people who had no eyes in their sockets. As my eyes are 84% faulty, I have 16% vision. When I speak about disability issues, particularly vision impairment, I like to think I know what I am talking about.

I commend all those involved in the new Chamber project. It is certainly much more user-friendly for me than the other Chamber. It is much brighter, airier and convenient. There is much more natural light compared to the other Chamber, although I can manage well in it. I encourage the Houses of the Oireachtas in the renovation of the other Chamber to ensure it will be much more user-friendly for people with a vision impairment, including those who will come after me. I question how user-friendly this Chamber is for members of the deaf community because there is a significant echo. Thankfully, in this Seanad, to my knowlege, there is no Member with a hearing impairment. However, in the overall context, that is an indictment of the system because a person with a serious hearing impairment has never been elected to either Houses of the Oireachtas, but I hope it will happen in due course.

I salute the work the Minister of State has done in the recognition of Irish Sign Language. I also salute him for his work in dealing with a structure that is traditional and archaic in promoting the rights and lifelong ambitions of people with disabilities, but the fact that the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has not been ratified is a little black mark against his name. I have no doubt, however, that it is probably something beyond his control. Knowing him as I do, I believe that if he could have had it ratified, it would have been done a long time ago. Having him in office is our best chance of seeing the convention ratified. Its ratification is a priority of those at the top in government. On the day Deputy Leo Varadkar became leader of Fine Gael and Taoiseach-elect he said in his first speech in the Mansion House, an event I attended, that one of his priorities was ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Obviously, there are significant institutional and legislative challenges that have to be dealt with to get the convention over the line to ratify it.

The last thing I want to see happen is the convention being ratified without provision of the proper backup supports and resources to ensure it will be meaningful and make a genuine difference to the lives of people with disabilities. We have had too many talking shops. The last thing I want to see happen in nurturing and developing the hopes, dreams, aspirations and ambitions of people with disabilities nurtured is ratifying the convention without the proper backup supports to make it a reality in their everyday lives. We all have to be patient and have faith that a genuine Minister of State will ratify the convention when the time is right and the proper protocols, procedures and resources are in place. People in the media and disability circles will talk and criticise. I am not saying any of my colleagues will, but there is no point in adopting a convention unless we have proper backup supports in place.

We are in a new Chamber that facilitates reflection. I can reflect on the opportunities I have been by the State. I attended integrated education classes in the west where there were no resource teachers or special needs assistants, but there were good-hearted individuals working in the education system who helped me. They could see that I was bright and had the ability to progress and went the extra mile to put resources behind me. That meant I did not have to attend special education classes or a school for the blind in Dublin away from my family at the age of four or five years. There are a great number of good people who do great work that is not recognised. There are no conventions, resources or facilities in place, yet they do what is right. That is why I am in this Chamber. It is a credit to them that I am a Member of the Oireachtas. As a member of a Government party and a Senator who proudly represents a party in government, I can tell Members that the Government has done more than any other to promote equality of access to education and opportunity. It has been difficult for the past five years and very difficult choices had to be made, but a great number of the difficulties have been reversed. We have new plans and strategies in place and, for the first time in the history of the country, there is a senior Cabinet Minister with specific and total interdepartmental responsibility to deal with disability issues. I am quite happy to debate issues with anybody, but I also want fair play. I want people to recognise what the Government has done for people with disabilities. It is a work in progress. Rome was not built in a day; nothing ever is. It is a programme which involves incremental achievements. I have no doubt that if the Government lasts its full term, the lives of people with disabilities will be far better than they were when it came into being in 2016.