Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 7 November 2023
68. Deputy Marian Harkin asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth his plans to ensure that the rights of children and adults with disabilities are upheld in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48372/23]
View answerAs Minister of State with responsibility for Disability, it is very important to me that we address the most significant challenges and barriers that people with disabilities face on a daily basis across Ireland. Continuously advancing in terms of the rights and obligations set out in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) is a priority for my Department.
Ireland’s overarching strategic framework for coordinating implementation of the UNCRPD, the National Disability Inclusion Strategy, expired in 2022 following a one-year extension. At the final meeting of the NDIS Steering Group in 2022, I encouraged all departments to maintain momentum on the initiatives under their remit where it remains incumbent upon all departments and agencies to observe their own sectoral responsibilities under the UNCRPD while the process to develop an ambitious successor strategy would be underway.
My own department has continued unabated in this work, progressing, for example, the recently launched Progressing Disability Services Roadmap, commencement of the Assisted Decision-Making Act, which included a legislative increase in the minimum percentage of persons with disabilities to be employed in the public sector and which legislated for IHREC to take on a formal role in monitoring the implementation of the UNCRPD. I was also pleased to be able to finalise the transfer of disability service functions from the Department of Health earlier this year, bringing a new focus to service provision for the period ahead.
Work continues across Government as a testament to our commitment to the implementation of the UNCRPD, and the rights that it affirms for children and adults with disabilities in Ireland. Our successes in embedding this commitment notwithstanding, work is ongoing to develop a successor strategy to the NDIS that will further advance the implementation of the UNCRPD at a whole of government level. This new strategy will be the blueprint for supporting people with disabilities to pursue lives of their choosing, and to be better supported in doing so. As such, it is important to get it right, and that will take time. A dedicated Project Team has been established within DCEDIY – and including expertise from the National Disability Authority – to support the development and delivery of the Strategy in early 2024. Public consultation for the Strategy will commence in the coming weeks, coming on foot of a series of targeted engagements this year with key stakeholders including the Disability Stakeholder Group and with Disabled People's Organisations. My officials will also be continuing to engage with colleagues across government to ensure the collaborative development of what will be a whole-of-government strategy.
I very much believe in the power of the phrase "nothing about us without us", and it is important to me that people with disabilities feel that they have shaped the new strategy. Both I and my officials are actively engaging with people with disabilities and their representative organisations to determine the strategy's priorities and to develop specific, measurable and outcome-focused actions aimed at achieving the strategy's ambition.
