UN disability convention ratification
Gerry Adams presses the Taoiseach on delayed ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the related Bill. The Taoiseach says the Government still intends to ratify this year but faces difficulties with enabling legislation and deprivation of liberty.
I have a ceist faoi the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Disability (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2016. The Taoiseach knows the UN convention was signed by the State in 2007. More than 174 states out of 193 in the UN have now ratified it, but this State has not ratified it. Yesterday, citizens with disabilities, many in wheelchairs, picketed the Dáil because the Government has failed to honour its commitments to them. The primary purpose of the Disability (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2016 is to provide for ratification of the UN Convention.
Sixteen months ago, the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, said it would be ratified within six months. That has not happened. It was referred to the justice committee for debate. That has not happened. As I said previously, this is an issue of rights. When will the Bill be passed? When will the State ratify the UN convention?
Can the Taoiseach inform the Dáil when he expects all the outstanding sections of the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act, which was passed two years ago, to be fully commenced?
Comment on this
It is our wish as a Government to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities this year. It is still our intention to do so. We have run into some difficulties, in particular with the enabling legislation and the deprivation of liberty. The Deputy will know that Ireland takes a different approach from that taken by other countries. Other countries sign a convention, ratify it and then introduce the enabling legislation. Countries such as Romania and Italy, which do not treat people with disabilities as well as we do in Ireland, have ratified the convention. Countries do take very different approaches. We are considering the possibility of ratifying the convention pending the completion of the legislation, but that is a matter that requires further investigation. It is very much our desire, however, to ratify the convention before the end of the year, ideally before December, or 3 December, which is International Day of Persons with Disabilities, as the Deputy knows.
On the new decision-making capacity service, the director has now been appointed. She is now in place and she is recruiting staff to get the service up and running.