Tom Clonan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am indeed.

Saturday, 3 December is the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. I ask all Members, when they are at their parliamentary party meetings, to press upon their leaders to commit to ratifying all the protocols, including the optional protocol of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, next year. In any event, it must happen during the term of this Government, which hopefully will last longer than that. Sadly, and for shame, Ireland remains one of the worst places in the EU to have a disability on every measure, including social isolation, poverty, homelessness, suboptimal medical outcomes and lack of services and therapies. One of the reasons for this is that Ireland is the only jurisdiction in the EU that does not have a legislative requirement or a basis in law which obliges the Government or its agents to provide treatments, therapies and services to persons with disabilities. We have an obligation now to have an assessment of need, and I welcome it, but once that assessment of need is provided, nothing follows.

The other manner in which we are outliers is that we are the only country in the EU which does not have a legislative requirement for the state or its agents - the HSE, for example - to provide carers to people with disabilities, to the elderly or to parents, or to provide any respite or personal assistant hours. Ratification of the UN convention and its optional protocol would remedy that immediately. In the absence of that, I hope to introduce legislation at some point during the lifetime of this Government to rectify and address those issues. In the meantime, I ask for a debate to bring all of us together. It may have to be a Private Members' debate. Individually, every single Member of both Houses I have spoken to is in favour of ratification but collectively, for some reason, the Government is slow to do this. There is goodwill there. It is right the thing to do. I ask Senators collectively to progress this matter.