Keith Swanick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

My colleagues and I obviously support the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This has the potential to be an important moment for tens of thousands of people living with disabilities in this country.

Ratification has been a long time coming and we have criticised the Government for delays on many occasions. Of course, ratification alone will not end the systemic discrimination that those with disabilities face day in, day out in this country. One should bear in mind that ratification coincided with the fifth anniversary of withdrawal of the mobility allowance for new entrants and we are still awaiting its replacement, even though I acknowledge the Minister of State said that the replacement scheme is at an advanced stage. For ratification to be meaningful in the longer term and to be prompt, we need to end this discrimination. It requires each and every organisation and agency to look at itself and how it treats persons with disabilities, and it fundamentally requires the Government to end structural bias in terms of accessing services from the State.

Ratification is a welcome step in the important journey towards equality. Ireland signed the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2007 and since then successive Governments have emphasised Ireland's commitment to proceed to ratification as quickly as possible taking into account the need to ensure all necessary legislative requirements under the convention are met. We are all aware, unfortunately, that "urgent" and "immediate" do not have the same meaning in the political world as they do in the real world.

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities follows decades of work by the United Nations to change attitudes and approaches to persons with disabilities. The UN continues to lead fantastic campaigns. For example, I am sure the Senators are all aware today is World Down Syndrome Day. It is a global awareness day when we, as a single global voice, advocate for the rights, inclusion and well-being of people with Down's syndrome. The convention is intended as a human rights instrument with an explicit social development dimension. It adopts a broad categorisation of persons with disabilities and reaffirms that all persons with all types of disabilities must enjoy all human rights and fundamental freedoms. It clarifies and qualifies how all categories of rights apply to persons with disabilities and identifies areas where adaptations must be made for persons with disabilities to effectively exercise their rights on areas where their rights have been violated and where protection of rights must be reinforced.

I take this opportunity to particularly commend the work of our colleague, Senator John Dolan, in this regard. I heard Senator Dolan state he celebrated the ratification with a cup of tea, and importantly a biscuit, with his wife and daughter. No one knows better than Senator Dolan that this ratification, while fantastic, is only the beginning. There are complex challenges ahead of us all. I say "us all" because this is an issue not only for disability campaigners alone. This is a job for every leader, every party and every public representative.