Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent)
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881. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality when the optional protocol of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities will be ratified. [21253/20]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Significant expenditure is being committed by individual departments to responding to the needs of persons with disabilities. For example, €1.7bn was spent by the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection on Disability Allowance payments in 2019. €2.054bn has been allocated in the HSE Service Plan for disability-related expenditure this year. Funding for special education provision in 2020 will amount to €1.9bn which is equivalent to 20% of the gross overall current allocation for education and training.

The Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) is an international treaty that establishes two procedures aimed at strengthening the implementation and monitoring of the Convention. The first is an individual communications procedure allowing individuals to bring petitions to the Committee claiming breaches of their rights; the second is an inquiry procedure giving the Committee authority to undertake inquiries of grave or systematic violations of the Convention.

The Programme for Government reiterates the commitment to ratify the Optional Protocol after the first reporting cycle. The Government priorities remain focused on addressing the remaining legislative measures to be taken to give full effect to the Convention.

Other priorities are the submission of the CRPD Initial State Report and developing an implementation plan to coordinate implementation of the UNCRPD.

The National Disability Inclusion Strategy is the key framework for policy and action to address the needs of people with disabilities. Through its actions, the strategy supports effective progress in delivering on the obligations set out in the Convention.

As this is a function that is due to transfer, it will of course be a matter for my colleague, Mr. Roderic O'Gorman, T.D., the Minister for Children, Disability, Equality and Integration, to bring this matter forward.