Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 November 2016
26. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the date on which she will publish the equality/disability (miscellaneous provisions) Bill, which is necessary for the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. [35195/16]
View answerI have tabled this straightforward question to get an update on the date on which the equality/disability (miscellaneous provisions) Bill will be published.
I thank Deputy O'Brien for asking this very important question about the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Considerable progress has been made to overcome the remaining legislative barriers to Ireland's ratification of the convention. The Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015, which was signed into law on 30 December 2015, is a comprehensive reform of the law on decision-making capacity. The Second Stage debate on the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2015 commenced in the Dáil on 5 October last. When it is enacted, it will reform section 5 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 1993 to facilitate the full participation in family life of people with intellectual disabilities and the full expression of their human rights. It is crucial that we achieve the necessary balance between safeguarding those rights and ensuring appropriate protection. Work is under way on drawing up the equality/disability (miscellaneous provisions) Bill and making progress with the miscellaneous legislative amendments that are necessary to proceed to ratification. It is intended that the Bill will address issues such as the convention's requirements with regard to reasonable accommodation and deprivation of liberty and will remove archaic references in existing legislation relating to mental health. The general scheme of the equality/disability (miscellaneous provisions) Bill is available on the website of the Department of Justice and Equality. The Bill is at the final stages of drafting. While I am not in a position to give an exact date for its publication, I expect to publish the Bill very shortly to facilitate the ratification of the convention by the end of 2016.
I hope we can meet that timeframe.
So do I.
We are quickly running out of time to meet the timeframe of the end of 2016. The Bill has not been published yet, and the Minister does not have a definitive date for when it will be published. Is there a particular reason there is a delay in publishing it? Article 33 of the convention recommends that an independent monitoring body should be put in place to monitor progress. In the Irish context, there is no single umbrella body that enables us to have such a monitoring process in place. Have we made any progress in that regard? One of the other key recommendations was that disabled persons bodies - they are referred to as "DPOs" in the rapporteur's report - should be involved in the consultation process and in the drafting of the legislation. I wonder what organisations the Minister of State has been consulting as part of the process of drafting this legislation. Have all the other recommendations set out in the rapporteur's report been met? I know the end of 2016 is a very tight timeframe. I hope the Minister of State will meet it, but he will understand my scepticism in this regard.
Yes. Many people have asked this question. I have set the end of this year - Christmas 2016 - as a clear target. Of course there are delays with legislation in the Department of Health. The issues are more bureaucratic than anything else. Over the past six months, I have consulted all groups working in the disability sector. I will continue to do this. I have just come from a meeting in my office with a group of parents of disabled children. I have met more than 3,000 people - parents, disabled people and service providers - over the past six months. They have made their views on many of the services and on the UN convention very clear to me. The background to this is that Ireland signed the convention in 2007 with the intention of being able to ratify it subsequently. Many people have asked why this has taken so long.
Go raibh maith agat.
We sign conventions as a declaration of our commitment to seek to apply the convention concerned in Ireland. We ratify them when we can guarantee to our international partners that we are meeting our commitments. We like to have many of the services in place before we move along. In budget 2017, we have allocated €1.562 billion for the national service plan for people with disabilities. That is an increase of €92 million.
Tá tú thar am.
We will do our best to ratify this UN convention as quickly as possible. We are not hanging around in the meantime.
Tá do chuid ama caite.
We are putting in the services. We are forming and developing the services.
You have taken another minute.
Thank you very much, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle.
I thank the Minister of State. In order to ratify it, this is not the only legislation which has to be completed. Is the Minister confident the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill will be completed before the end of the year? Obviously, it is one Bill that needs to be ratified.
That is in committee this week so it depends on the progress within the committee. I would certainly share the Deputy's wish it is completed as quickly as possible but that will be up to the members of the committee in the first instance. It has already been through the Seanad and, if there are amendments, it will have to return to the Seanad. I hope we can make speedy progress. It is a very important Bill with provisions that deal with issues in regard to the grooming of children and other sexual offences.
