People with disabilities protest outside Leinster House

People with disabilities protested outside Leinster House on Thursday afternoon over the Government’s failure to ratify the UN Convention on Rights for Disabled People (UNCRPD).

Ireland is the last remaining EU member state to ratify the Convention, which was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2006 in an effort to ensure that persons with disabilities enjoy the same human rights as everyone else. Ireland signed the UNCPRD in March 2007.

Other issues raised by protesters on Kildare Street were the failure to provide a new transport and mobility benefit or a “personalised budget” for people with disabilities.

Ann Kennedy (64) from Greystones, Co Wicklow who has a rare neuromuscular disease said:

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“I don’t feel the way I’m living now is a normal existence, too often I say I’d be better off dead, too often I say to my twin I’d be better off dead.

“The biggest thing people with disabilities need is their own voice heard and autonomy and the decision making to be in the hands of the person with the disability.”

Ms Kennedy’s twin sister, Margaret, said the Government’s current treatment of people with disabilities was “poor”.

“The problem with being disabled in Ireland is somebody else directs your life. Somebody else decides what you’re allowed to have, where you’re allowed to go,” she said.

“They have these tokenistic gestures, they have working parties, dragging things out, we want things to happen faster.”

‘We’re not looking for something extraordinary or massive’

Frank Larkin (46) from Letterkenny, Co Donegal was born with spina bifida. He said the Government was "dragging its heels" when it comes to ratifying the Convention.

“We’ve signed it but we haven’t ratified it and that is just shocking in this day and age. I have often travelled to other countries for conferences and that and it’s so embarrassing when you hear that,” he said.

“On a more practical level, I came to Dublin yesterday from Donegal and one of the things that would come under the UN convention would be transport.

“I, still in the middle of 2017, have to be lifted onto the bus by two people. If those people weren’t there or weren’t willing to do it, I just can’t use the transport. It’s as simple as that.

“We don’t want anything different from anybody else, we want to be treated the same, that’s basically why we’re here today.

“We’re not looking for something extraordinary or massive, we’re looking to be treated the way that every other citizen in this country is treated.”