Minister of State for New Communities, Culture, Equality and Drugs Strategy Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, today announced details of Phase 2 of the comprehensive consultation process which is taking place during 2015 with a view to putting in place a new National Disability Inclusion Strategy. The consultation process allows interested parties to make recommendations in key areas such as service provision, accommodation, health, employment, and education.
The Minister made the announcement speaking at a Council of Europe Conference on Promoting Human Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Ambitions, Impact and Challenges Ahead. The Conference is taking place in the Royal Hospital Kilmainham on 5-6 November and is co-hosted by the Department of Justice and Equality. Disability activists and experts and public servants with disability policy responsibilities from most of the 47 European states that are members of the Council are in attendance. The Conference aims to take stock of the implementation of the Council of Europe’s existing Disability Action Plan and set out the priorities and main lines of action for the future Council of Europe Disability Strategy (post-2015 four-year disability framework), which will be focused at enhancing/assisting in the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Phase 1 of the consultation process to develop a new Disability Inclusion Strategy in Ireland was launched in June 2015. As indicated at that time, the consultations are taking the form of a 3-stage process as follows:
1. An initial round of consultations, to facilitate identification of the priority themes to be addressed in a National Disability Inclusion Strategy.
2. A second phase (now being commenced) to identify and agree specific objectives under each of the themes identified in Phase1.
3. Phase 3 - to commence at the end of this year - which will focus on identifying precise and measurable actions and timescales for achievement of each of the objectives that emerged from Phase 2. Following this phase, a draft proposal for a new Disability Inclusion Strategy will be prepared by the National Disability Strategy Steering Group for consideration by Government.
A total of 24 submissions were received in Phase 1, 7 from individuals and 17 from organisations. The individuals who responded included people with a disability, family members, and a person working in the disability field. These submissions have been analysed by the National Disability Authority. The Minister of State today published a set of suggested high-level objectives for the new Strategy on which views are now being sought.
Minister O'Riordain stated:
“As I said when we started this process, we have an opportunity for the first time in many years now to address the issues of concern to people with disabilities in a sustained way”, said the Minister. “We are now in the middle of the public consultation process on the development of the new Disability Inclusion Strategy and I want to hear views from as many people as possible”.
For Phase 2, there are a number of avenues by which people can participate, including making of formal written submissions (as in Phase 1), but also - new for this Phase - responding to an online survey (https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NDISOnlineConsultation) and participating at 3 regional meetings:
Cork - Tuesday, 24 November (Imperial Hotel Cork City)
Dublin - Thursday, 26 November (Croke Park)
Tullamore - Wednesday, 2 December (Tullamore Court Hotel)
They are being arranged on behalf of the Department by the NDA.