Ireland making progress on ratification of disability convention

“Considerable progress” has been made to overcome the barriers to Ireland’s ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, a Government minister has said.

Finian McGrath, minister of state for disability, updated TDs on the issue as he announced the Disability (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2016 will be presented to the Dáil for second stage on 7 and 8 February.

He said: “Considerable progress has already been made to overcoming the barriers to Ireland’s ratification of the Convention. The Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015 was signed into law last year and is a comprehensive reform of the law on decision-making capacity.”

Mr McGrath added: “Work is underway in the Attorney General’s Office on a number of additional issues that will be addressed in the Bill as Committee Stage amendments and in the Department of Health on legislative proposals in relation to meeting the Convention’s requirement on deprivation of liberty.”

The Department of Justice said the bill will be progressed to enactment at an early date to facilitate ratification as soon as possible.

The key elements of the new assisted decision-making arrangements provided for in the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015, as well as the proposed deprivation of liberty provisions, will also have to come into effect for the ratification of the convention.

Responding to a question in the Dáil earlier this week, Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald said it was her intention “that the new decision-making support options provided for in the Act will be substantially implemented during 2017”.

Ms Fitzgerald said: “New administrative processes and support measures, including the setting up of the Decision Support Service within the Mental Health Commission (which is a body under the Department of Health), must be put in place before the substantive provisions of the Act come into force.

“My Department is working carefully on this at present in consultation with the Department of Health and the Mental Health Commission.

“A high-level Steering Group comprised of senior officials from my Department, the Department of Health and the Mental Health Commission is overseeing the establishment and commissioning of the Decision Support Service.”