Government Forgetting People with Disabilites

Evans in his wheelchair near his home in Kabukuro, Kenya on May 26, 2022. Evans was born with a spinal deformation. Credit: CBM/Hayduk

On Wednesday 24th January this year, the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters launched its report, Towards harmonisation of national legislation with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The findings are stark. It is as if the government has forgotten to continue work on disability inclusion in Ireland once the administrative process of ratification was completed.

The scorecard of progress against the various articles of the UN Convention lays out the lack of movement on disability rights since 2018. Looking somewhat like a school report, some ‘good progress’ is noted initially, but then it appears like the government lost interest along the way, the traffic-light rating system moving from green to predominantly orange (limited progress) to red (no progress) and even black (regression).

Progress has been made on mostly what would be considered as areas of signalling intent – equality, women with disabilities, and awareness raising. No progress is made on substantive areas such as the right to life, accessibilty and mobility. This is the assessment of the Joint Oireachtas Committee, working across parties and across the two houses the Dail and the Seanad

Regression is highlighted in areas of significant individual importance: health and independent living. Regression on independence means greater dependency. Dependence means power imbalance and is the opposite of progress towards equality.

The timing of the report is hugely important. As the government moves towards a new National Disabilty Strategy, it is apparent that the 2017-22 version has been a substantial failure and it is imperative that the Government takes on board the recommendations from the Joint Committee and take seriously the commitments that come with ratification of the UNCRPD.

People with disabilities continue to be secondary. Irrespective of views on abortion, the lack of interest of the government on the impact of the removal of the prohibition of abortion on people with disabilities is telling. A 2020 report in the European Journal of Genitics notes that there are 155,000 fewer people – or 27% - with Down Syndrome living in Europe due to abortion. In Ireland, there is no government appetite to look at this in any manner, let alone consider it an issue of concern.

At the Joint Committee on Assisted Dying, disability rights activists highlighted the threat that the introduction of assisted dying may have on people with disabilities living in Ireland, warning that legislative protections will not prevent people with disabilities feeling the social and societal pressures that their lives are burdensome and of less value. The clear message was that the government should prioritise living well rather than dying well in their legislative and policy efforts. The report from the Joint Committee indicates that living well for people with disabilities is not getting the attention or investment. it requires.

The proposed removal of reference to ‘the home’ in the forthcoming referendum and the watering down of government commitments to merely ‘strive to support’ care given by families point away from prioritising independent living. If the referendum passes, will this slow or regress the move away from institutionalisation? Senator Tom Clonan, in the recent Seanad debates emphases that the “State is trying to avoid compellability, or to provide any sort of legal framework or underpinning to the inalienable and fundamental human rights of disabled citizens.”

Ireland signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCPRD) in 2007 and ratified it in March 2018. The lengthy delay between signing and ratification was justified by successive governments, claiming it was necessary to make significant progress on disability inclusion in Ireland before adopting the CRPD into national law. The cross-party Committee

The work of the Committee has to be commended. Dedicating significant time over the last two years, chaired by Deputy Michael Moynihan, T.D., engaged in probably the most in-depth public consultation carried out by the various cross-house Committees, hearing from organisations of people with disabilities (DPOs) and disability rights organisations in face-to-face discussions, most often in the evening when the Committee members could have been doing something else entirely – such as enjoying the facilities of the Dail bar!

As an organisations working on international cooperation, CBM Ireland welcomes the recommendations of the Committee that the Department of Foreign Affairs and Irish Aid should take more action on disabilities in its overseas aid.

The call for Ireland to advocate for the inclusion of a specific Goal on disability in whatever global agenda succeeds the Sustainable Development Goals is important. It is not just in Ireland that disabilty is overlooked. The SDGs give little more than a passing reference to disability rights even though people with disabilities make up one-sixth of the world’s population and this needs to change if disability matters are to be given sufficient importance in the coming years.

The report from the Committee (page 129) recommends Ireland adopts a disability inclusive approach to international co-operation as a cross-cutting conditionality. However, we feel that the recommendation should go further to require targeted support to address the specific needs of people with disabilities in Ireland’s international co-operation. To date, there is no dedicated strategy/policy on disability inclusion, nor any earmarked financial commitments on disability through Ireland’s overseas aid budget. This needs to change. Poverty and disability are closely linked and people with disability suffer more in resource poor environments where tough investments decisions have to be made. Ireland can help fill that void through its overseas aid in lower income countries.

The frustrations of the members of the Joint Committee that progress on disability rights has slowed since the ratification of the UNCRPD are understandable. The detailed recommendations of the Committee provide a roadmap for progress under the next National Disability Strategy and call for accountability of the current and next governments to people with disabilities as full citizens with equal rights under the Constitution and the UNCRPD.

Dualta Roughneen is the CEO of CBM Ireland