Calls on Government to scrap SOP system and sign up to the UNCRPD Optional Protocol
People Before Profit will be supporting the Sinn Fein Private Members Motion which is to be debated in the Dáil this evening on Services for Children with Disabilities.
Health spokesperson Gino Kenny TD will say that the government must also support this motion, scrap the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), and sign up to the Optional Protocol of the United Nations Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
He will say: “The SOP is letting down children living with disabilities. The government had been warned against this SOP by The Psychological Society of Ireland, the Association of Occupational Therapists of Ireland and the Irish Association of Speech and Language Therapists. Two weeks ago, the High Court ruled that the SOP does not comply with the 2005 Disability Act.
“These children are being failed in that their assessment time under the SOP has been massively reduced. It needs to be scrapped and we need the upcoming review to recommend a system of assessment that is fit for purpose and provides children with disabilities the comprehensive assessment time that they need.
“The government also must sign up to the Optional Protocol of the UNCRPD. Ireland is one of only ten countries not to have done this. It is quite frankly a disgrace.”
