On New Year's Day, it was reported that the Taoiseach told the media the Government is set to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. It was said it would be done with votes in the Oireachtas in February. The reality is that ratification is very much necessary but we still have serious outstanding gaps in legislation in order to meet the standards of the convention in any meaningful way. This includes the commencement in full of the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act, the passage of the Disability (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill and an overhaul of the Mental Health Act to implement the recommendations of the expert group review, which will be three years old in March. Can the Taoiseach provide a timeline for these necessary reforms and others and will he commit to prioritising these as to ratify the convention in their absence, while welcome, would be more of a gesture than a real step towards rights for people with disabilities?

Pretty much every country in the Western world has already ratified the convention and the Government is very committed to ratifying it, ideally next month. The majority of countries that have ratified it, just like us, have certain aspects of detailed legislation they have not finalised so we will not be out of line in any way in ratifying it with a few reservations and some legislation that needs to be sorted out. They are already priority legislation but they are particularly complicated particularly with regard to the deprivation of liberty.