Disability Bill to be published in next few days

A bill to address the legislative barriers to Ireland’s ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities will be published in the next few days after it received Government approval yesterday.

Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald recently told TDs that the Disability (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2016 was “at the final stages of drafting”.

Speaking after the Government approved publication of the bill yesterday, she said: “Ireland signed the Convention in 2007 and, since then, successive Governments have emphasised Ireland’s commitment to proceed to ratification as quickly as possible, however there is also the need to ensure all necessary legislative requirements under the Convention are met. This bill will address those requirements.”

Finian McGrath, minister of state for disability, 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.”

Work is ongoing on all the other issues set out in the previous Government’s Roadmap for Ratification published in October 2015 and these will be progressed as Committee Stage amendments.