I wish to read a letter that was sent to the Taoiseach more than six months ago by a local disability activist in Donegal, Mr. Frank Larkin. In his letter, he describes his experience as a person with disabilities travelling to Leinster House from Donegal in order to hand in a petition to the Taoiseach's office with more than 500 signatories calling on the Taoiseach to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities while he was forming his new Government in May. In his letter he wrote:

Let me give you a couple of examples from personal experience whereby I have been denied my rights:

1. Just this morning when I left Donegal to come here I got the bus. In order to get on that Bus, I had to ask two people to help me on to the Bus as accessible public transport does not exist in Donegal. This always is a humiliating and embarrassing experience.

2. In order to maintain the level of independence I currently have I decided to apply for personal assistance some time ago. I was subsequently offered 2 hours a week. This equates to around 17.5 minutes a day. How I am supposed to use this time in order to maintain my current level of independence, I would be interested to hear your thoughts on [this].

3. Despite having a number of excellent qualifications I am still no further forward in being able to find meaningful employment.

To date, Frank has not received a reply from the Taoiseach's office or that of the Minister of State. His honest account of his life as a person with a disability living in Ireland should be a reminder to us all that for far too long people with disabilities have been left behind in this country. Frank should not have to feel embarrassed. It is the Taoiseach who should feel embarrassed because it is his Government that has failed once again to meet the target for ratification by the end of this year. It has been ten years since Ireland signed the convention, but we remain the only EU country that has yet to ratify it. This is completely unacceptable.

Will the Taoiseach commit to a specific date by which Ireland will ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities? Will he progress the ratification process without delay so that people such as Frank and many others in the country who are living with a disability can live in dignity and on an equal footing to everyone else? We hear the Department of Justice and Equality and the Department of Health are blaming each other for the failure to ratify the convention by the end of this year. This is disgraceful carry on considering that every Department in the Government is responsible for seeing this through. It is a real indication that no real progress has been made to date despite the establishment of an interdepartmental committee on the convention and the drafting of a roadmap to ratification by the Minister for Justice and Equality.

What are the barriers that each Department claims are stalling efforts to ratify? They seem to be mystery barriers because no one can figure out why it has taken ten years to achieve something that should not be difficult to achieve so long as the political will is there do it in the first place. It is clear that the political will did not exist and we doubt it exists today.

Deputy Pringle is correct to raise this matter. We have referred to the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in the House on a number of occasions. I am sorry that Mr. Larkin did not receive a comprehensive response. That is probably due to the fact that a number of pieces of legislation have to go through yet. We take our international obligations seriously and do not ratify such instruments until we can guarantee compliance. While this convention was signed on 30 March 2007, it has taken all these years to get to a point where we can ratify it. Other countries have ratified the convention before they have introduced the sectoral legislation that would allow for competence to be evident. Ireland has not ratified the convention and this is a recurring criticism by the UN as well as domestic civil society and non-governmental organisations.

Ireland has advanced the position of those with disabilities beyond that of many other European Union states. The Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, is dealing specifically with this area. On 21 October 2015, the Government published a roadmap on Ireland's ratification of the convention.

The roadmap outlines the legislative changes to be undertaken to enable us to ratify the convention with competence, along with the estimated timeframes involved. It indicated a target date for ratification of the end of 2016. This date was reiterated by the Government when it approved the general scheme of the Bill in March 2016 and again in the programme for Government.

Three steps are involved. First, section 5 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 1993 needs to be replaced. This matter is being addressed in the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2015, which has completed its passage through the Seanad and Committee Stage of which is scheduled to be taken in the Dáil today. Second, the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act enacted in 2015 needs to be commenced. Third, the equality (miscellaneous provisions) Bill will address all the remaining issues. Drafting of that Bill is under way and one particular section is taking up quite a deal of the time of the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath. The Bill will have to address issues such as the convention's requirement in respect of reasonable accommodation and what is known as the deprivation of liberty. This matter will be dealt with by a specific amendment on Committee Stage. The heads of the Bill were recently finalised by the Department of Health.

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities will not be ratified by the end of the year. The section causing some difficulty is that which deals with reasonable accommodation and deprivation of liberty. A great deal of work is being done by the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, with the assistance and support of the Government. There has been a deal of serious investment in disability services in the past six months, with an additional €31 million in funding provided.

The Minister of State is drafting, with the Minister for Health, provisions on personal assistant hours, which are the focus of the case made by Mr. Larkin. While the matter will not be concluded by the end of the year, we have almost reached the point at which we can ratify the convention with competence.

The Taoiseach's explanation will come as cold comfort to the many thousands of people with disabilities across Ireland. The rationale for the decisions of other European Union member states in opting for early ratification was that it creates an imperative to put in place the mechanisms required to ensure compliance. What we have seen here is the matter being put on the long finger for ten years.

The Taoiseach indicated that the general scheme of the equality (miscellaneous provisions) Bill had been agreed in March 2016. It is now December 2016 and we are no closer to seeing the Bill in the House. Clearly, therefore, the target of ratifying the convention by the end of 2016 will not be met. Will the Taoiseach commit to a date by which the ratification process will be completed? We have all seen Bills being stalled and delayed for years before completing their passage through the House. It is time the Taoiseach committed to and stood firmly behind a date to ensure ratification takes place.

To be straight with Deputy Pringle on this issue, I cannot commit to a date because I will need Deputies' help. When the equality (miscellaneous provisions) Bill comes before the House, we will have to deal with a question that has been outstanding for a very long time, namely, the convention's requirement in respect of reasonable accommodation and deprivation of liberty. As the Deputy is aware, the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, and the Minister for Health, Deputy Simon Harris, have highlighted the investment over five years of significant money to build community houses rather than congregated settings. This element will have to be dealt with in terms of the reasonable accommodation, as identified by the United Nations.

The equality (miscellaneous provisions) Bill will come before the House early in the new year and I expect we will secure the support of the parties and Deputies to put it through. Once it has been passed and the other two changes have been made, namely, the replacement of section 5 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 1993 and the commencement of the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act, we will be able to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities with competence. While it has taken a long time and it has been a long wait, the end of this saga is in sight.