Policy Advice, Submissions and Guidance

The NDA recommends that the Department of Justice include clear commitments in this new Statement of Strategy with regard to how services and supports within its remit will be provided to members of the public with disabilities. A clear statement confirming the Government’s policy of ‘mainstreaming’ and referencing how the Department of Justice will recognise and meet the needs of disabled persons when delivering services is a useful approach.

February 2022

NDA Submission to the Public Consultation on Codes of Practice under the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015 - Part 2

January 2022

NDA Submission to the Public Consultation on Codes of Practice under the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015 - Part 1

The NDA is represented on An Garda Síochána’s Strategic Human Rights Advisory Committee. This committee seeks to embed a human rights approach in the foundation of all the work carried out by An Garda Síochána. We provide advice in relation to considering the needs of people with disabilities.

In 2022, we made a submission to An Garda Síochána’s Older Person Strategy. The development process of the new Strategy considered a number of elements, including enhancing Garda engagement and accessibility with older people, reducing crimes against older persons, supporting community safety initiatives and creating partnerships with others to meet the needs of older people.

The NDA made a submission to An Garda Síochána consultation on its Strategy Statement 2022-2024 in March. The NDA highlighted An Garda Síochána’s obligation to ensure access to justice for persons with disabilities, under both the UNCRPD and the National Disability Inclusion Strategy.

The Prison Service launched a review of S/I No. 252/2007 Prison Rules, 2007 in September 2021.

The NDA made a brief submission to this review on a number of points.

The Policing Authority ran a consultation on ‘Policing Priorities’ for 2022. The Policing Priorities are determined annually by the Authority and set out the areas of policing that it believes the Garda Síochána should focus its attention, time and resources on, in any given year.

The Irish Probation Service contacted the NDA and welcomed its views on what it considered key areas to address in the forthcoming Statement of Strategy.

The NDA included a number of points in its submission.

The Department of Justice and Equality held a public consultation on a draft Youth Justice Strategy. The Strategy has been developed in light of experience of State agencies and community partners who work with the comparatively small number of children and young people who come in contact with the criminal justice system. This work has built on the 2008 Youth Justice Strategy and the subsequent Youth Justice Action Plan 2014-2018. It tries to deal with many of the gaps that remain as well as new challenges which have emerged. It is intended that the new Strategy will form an important element of the National Policy Framework for Children and Young Adults.

The NDA contributed to the public consultation, making a number of points.

In September 2020, the Minister for Justice Helen McEntee, T.D. established the Family Justice Oversight Group. The main role of the Group is to identify ways to modernise and improve family justice and people’s experience of the system. The Group is made up of representatives from the Department of Justice; the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth; the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform; the Courts Service; the Legal Aid Board; and members of the Judiciary.

A survey was launched in May 2021 to gather experiences and recommendations from stakeholders and service users. The NDA submitted views, highlighting Ireland’s obligations under Articles 13 (Access to Justice) and 23 (Respect for home and family) of the UNCRPD. The NDA stressed the importance of considering the wider context of family justice and, in particular, the factors which may contribute to families being involved in separation, divorce and custody and child care proceedings, noting that Irish research has demonstrated the inadequacies in the provision of parental and/or family supports to parents of children with disabilities.

The NDA also made a number of other comments.

In December 2021, the NDA submitted a comprehensive paper to the public consultation on the Review of Equality Legislation in Ireland. The review of the Equal Status Acts, the Employment Equality Act and several other relevant pieces of legislation aimed to examine the functioning of the Acts and their effectiveness in combatting discrimination and promoting equality, as well as reviewing definitions and grounds.

The NDA highlighted several points to consider.

The Department of Justice launched a public consultation to inform the development of a new national strategy on Domestic, Sexual and Gender-based Violence in June 2021. The third national strategy will place an emphasis on prevention and reduction, and is to be agreed by Government before the end of 2021. As the NDA had worked closely with Cosc in the Department of Justice on developing and monitoring previous Strategies, it was appropriate to make a submission to this consultation.