Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent)
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490. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth when he plans to sign the Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with a Disability to meet Ireland’s obligations under the convention; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48148/21]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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The Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 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. At a recent sitting of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters the Secretary General of my Department advised members that both I and my colleague, Minister of State for Disability, Anne Rabbitte, T.D, are open to an earlier ratification of the Optional Protocol.

Our intention is to begin the work required to prepare for ratification of the Optional Protocol once the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015 has been commenced and the Decision Support Service is operational. This is scheduled to take place in June and July of next year.