Neasa Hourigan (Dublin Central, Green Party)
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9. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth when the optional protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities will be formally ratified; what mechanisms will be available to complainants once ratified; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43343/24]

Neasa Hourigan (Dublin Central, Green Party)
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The Minister has mentioned this a couple of times this morning. I think we are all delighted to hear we are moving ahead with the optional protocol on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Can we get an update on the formal ratification and on the mechanisms that may be available to complainants once it is ratified?

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I thank the Deputy. She has raised this with me regularly in my time as Minister. I was pleased to announce on 8 October that the Government made the important decision to formally accede to the optional protocol to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, delivering on a key programme for Government commitment. This decision marks a milestone moment for Ireland and demonstrates our ongoing commitment to the realisation of the rights and obligations set out in the convention. Furthermore, it reflects our ongoing drive to improve the lives of persons with disability in this country.

On foot on the Government's decision, Ireland’s instrument of accession, signed by the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, will be deposited with the UN Secretary General in the coming weeks. The optional protocol will enter into force with respect to the State on the 30th day following that deposit. It is anticipated that the optional protocol will have entered into force by the end of 2024. The accession instrument has been signed by the Tánaiste and is with the permanent mission of Ireland to the United Nations in New York. The document is over there so we are nearly there.

The optional protocol will enable people who feel their rights under the convention have been breached to submit a communication to the relevant UN committee, which may then make recommendations to the State to redress the matter. In that regard, the optional protocol is an important accountability mechanism for implementation of the convention. The relevant information, guidance and complaint forms are available on the website of the UN Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner. Accession to the optional protocol forms part of Ireland’s broader approach to compliance with the convention, and ultimately will assist in furthering the State’s progressive implementation of the convention in an important way. Intensive work is ongoing across government to develop Ireland’s next national disability strategy, which will form the implementation plan to advance delivery of the rights as set out in the convention over the coming years.

Neasa Hourigan (Dublin Central, Green Party)
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People throughout the country will be delighted to hear it hopefully will be in place before the end of 2024. A huge number of people in the past five years have worked and campaigned hard to ensure there is governance and oversight in how we implement the UNCRPD. If I understand what the Minister has outlined, it is a relationship between the UN and the people of Ireland and then the UN communicates with the State of Ireland. I ask about this because persons with disabilities and their families, carers, mammies and daddies are tired. They are filling in endless forms and making endless phone calls. I want to ensure the optional protocol, which I hope we will not have to use too often, is accessible to them. I assume that if it falls short, Ireland can engage with the UN to ensure those accessibility issues are minimised.

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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We all want a country where people with disabilities and their families do not feel they need to take up the provisions of the optional protocol and feel that Ireland is meeting their full rights under the UNCRPD. We know we are not there yet and have a lot of work to do to get to that place. We have been able to do some important things in the past four and a half years, particularly since disability came over to my Department, but we recognise there is still a big gap. One of the ways we are recognising this is putting in this new level of accountability. We can now be held accountable in front of the world when we have not met our international commitments to people with disabilities. The United Nations will have its own mechanism in terms of how people access it. Many DPOs across the country will be looking to support cases and submissions. Our Department actively supports DPOs. Sometimes it will be a stick to beat our own back with but that has to be done because we have to have accountability if the State fails people with a disability.

Neasa Hourigan (Dublin Central, Green Party)
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It is worth reiterating we would all want to live in an Ireland where nobody needs the optional protocol. Unfortunately, as the Minister said, we are not there yet. I too hope and expect the optional protocol will work as a motivator for the State because of the cost of not doing enough. The stakes are raised. Has the Minister's Department, or other Departments such as finance or public expenditure, NDP delivery and reform, undertaken a review of whether, in the current situation, the optional protocol poses a significant cost concern to the State?

Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Independent)
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I agree with the Minister that we need accountability. Regarding the announcement around the accession to the optional protocol, the lack of clarity around timelines has been quite dubious. I found it deeply strange there was no clarification. The announcement did not say when it would be signed or lodged, just that the Government was choosing to accede. This was announced after the budget, so there was no new funding for vindication of the optional protocol.

I have been trying to get clarity on whether the instrument has been signed and deposited to the Secretary General. The Minister said it has been signed, is with the UN and is "over there". What does that imply? I feel this is another commitment in principle. The Minister says it will be by year end, but there is an election coming. People with disabilities have been waiting a long time for the UNCRPD to be ratified but this further delay with the optional protocol is disappointing.

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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There is no further delay. I am not quite sure what the Deputy is talking about. We have agreed as Government to sign the optional protocol and sent the accession documents to New York, which is how it is done. They will be delivered by the Irish representative in the United Nations to the United Nations disability committee and 30 days later the optional protocol will be binding on Ireland - that will be by the end of this year. There is no delay----

Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Independent)
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Do we not have a date?

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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-----and no lack of clarity on that point.

On Deputy Hourigan's point, it will be a motivator. It motivated our Department on the assisted decision-making legislation and is an important motivator behind the mental health legislation passing through the Houses right now. There have been analyses and there are areas where Ireland is vulnerable. Universal design, which the Deputy has placed a focus on, is one area. Early intervention and assessment of needs is another area in which we are vulnerable. As a Government, State and Department, we will be responding to and addressing each of those areas to bring us closer to compliance.