Speech by Minister for Children, Disability and Equality Norma Foley at the launch of the National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People 2025-2030

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As Minister for Children, Disability and Equality, I am very pleased to be here this morning at the official launch of the National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People.

I was really taken by the phrase used by David, one the participants in the video you just watched:

“Listen to us instead of telling us what we need.”

For my part, this is at the very heart of I want this strategy to be about. The aspirations, the ambitions and the lived experience of people with disabilities.

Every effort has been made to ensure people with disabilities steered and structured this strategy. There were focus groups, surveys, interviews and town hall meetings, online and in-person, throughout the country. were held. Expert interviewers were also used to access the voices of people who are seldom heard from – such as children with disabilities and people with intellectual disabilities.

In some instances, people were able to communicate not just with “mouth words” but with facial expressions, body movements, sound and assistive technology. There are always means to communicate if we are truly prepared to listen and to hear.

This strategy has come from the people who matter most – those who live every day with disability.

So, after all of the consultation, what did we find out about is needed?

The top three issues identified were:

• access to health and social care
• having enough money to cover the extra costs related to disability,
• being able to avail of and use public or private transportation easily

There is an unwavering focus in this strategy on clear and concrete actions which people with disabilities want prioritised – rather than just looking at it from an official and often times siloed perspective. As one disabled person put it brilliantly – “a person’s life isn’t divided into government departments.”

It is therefore fitting that this is the first ever National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People. This is the name that was requested and promoted by people with disabilities themselves. They wanted a clear human rights focus in this strategy, starting with the title.

I know Shakespeare wondered – “What’s in a name?” But I fundamentally believe that names, language and in this instance titles, are important because they set the agenda and they carve out the vision.

I would like to share something with you that came through as part of the public consultation. That is the experience of one person with Down Syndrome. This person wanted to take a taxi trip on her own. The taxi driver said he would not take responsibility for a child, despite the person and her parent confirming that she was an adult in her late 20s. I hope this strategy will change the perspective and grow the confidence of that taxi driver and others right across society.

In the consultation, disabled people revealed that they felt they were regarded as inferior, and the term 'second class citizens’ was used so many times by people with disabilities.

As a country, as a republic and as a society, we can and must do better for people with disabilities.

Tá sé thar am duinn dul i ngleic leis na deacreachtaí agus na dushlánaí a bhaineann le míchumas.

Tugann an Straitéis Náisiúnta um Chearta an Duine do Dhaoine faoi Mhíchumas an deis dúinn tús nua a chur chun chinn.

"Guthanna comhionanna, gníomhartha comhionanna, todhchaí chomhionann."

“Equal voices, equal actions, equal futures.”

That is the motto chosen by disabled people themselves for the new strategy.

Their message is clear – they want to be treated the same as everybody else. I am heartened to see so many disabled people and their representative organisations here today. Thank you. I also want to welcome my cabinet colleagues both here on the stage and in the audience.

Time and again, people with disabilities have shared with me their strong view of “Nothing about us without us.” How right they are.

At the heart of developing this strategy have been people with disabilities. And I am determined that they will be at the heart of its implementation too. Go raibh mile maith agaibh go léir.