List of Issues.
June 2025
The National Platform of Self-Advocates is a Disabled Persons Organisation (DPO) established in 2011 and led entirely by people with intellectual disabilities. It is founded on the principles of equality, autonomy, and participation, as enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), particularly Articles 3 (General Principles), 4.3 (Participation in decision-making), and 29 (Participation in political and public life). The Platform exists to ensure that people with intellectual disabilities are recognised and respected as full and equal citizens with the right to speak for themselves and shape the decisions that affect their lives.
The Platform is the only nationally recognised organisation in the country that is both run and controlled by people with intellectual disabilities, and it plays a unique and irreplaceable role in the disability rights movement. It currently has over 1,000 members across the country and is governed by a voluntary steering committee made up entirely of self-advocates with intellectual disabilities.
The Platform works to ensure that the voices of its members are included at all levels of public decision-making—local, regional, and national. This includes participation in consultations, co-design of policies and services, and monitoring the implementation of laws and policies that affect people with intellectual disabilities. The Platform advocates for accessible information, inclusive education, supported decision-making, and equal access to employment, housing, and community life. It also provides peer-led training and capacity-building to support the leadership and advocacy skills of its members.
In fulfilling its mission, the National Platform challenges stigma, promotes human rights, and actively works to dismantle barriers, both attitudinal and systemic, that prevent full participation of people with intellectual disabilities in society.
Introduction.
This report sets out key issues on the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Disabled People (UNCRPD) identified by the National Platform of Self-Advocates (the Platform). This report has been produced by the Platform, in collaboration with its membership.
How we wrote this report.
To inform this report, data was collected through 8 peer-led self-advocacy capacity-building events with seldom-heard individuals and groups of people with intellectual disabilities from across Ireland. A self-selecting issue survey was conducted by the Platform during these sessions which received 126 responses.
Articles 1 to 4 – General Obligations and Principles.
Under Article 4.3 of the Convention, people with disabilities and Disabled Persons Organisations (DPOs) must be consulted on policy and legislation to implement the Convention.
Issue:
Since we began our work in 2011, the Platform has had no core funding from government. We need core funding to make sure we are can fully take part in consultations about laws and policies that affect our lives.
To be involved in consultation on policy and legislation, the Platform has relied on fragmented funding provided through short-term project-focused initiatives and small grant funds from the Government at different times throughout its development .
Question:
1. What steps will the Irish Government take to provide sustained, core funding to Disabled Persons Organisations (DPOs), such as the National Platform of Self-Advocates, to ensure their full, effective, and equal participation in consultations on laws and policies that affect their lives, in line with its obligations under Article 4.3 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities?
Issue:
Throughout the Platform’s regional events, disabled people shared their ongoing experiences of negative attitudes and discrimination in daily life. People with intellectual disabilities described facing barriers in accessing and staying in employment, using public transport, and achieving financial independence—barriers often reinforced by stereotypes, prejudice, and lack of awareness about their rights.
In addition to these experiences, participants also raised concerns about not knowing where to go for support when they face discrimination, or how to get information about their rights.
Questions:
1. What is the Irish Government doing to raise public awareness and challenge negative attitudes, stereotypes, and discrimination against people with intellectual disabilities?
2. What measures is the Government taking to ensure that people with intellectual disabilities know where to go and who to talk to if they experience discrimination or need support in understanding their rights?
The Platform has called for more human rights awareness and education amongst government employees, elected representatives, policymakers, service providers and people with intellectual disabilities themselves.
Issue:
Lack of awareness of people with intellectual disabilities of their right to advocate was evidenced by over 1,000+ participants in an online advocacy programme developed by the Platform. Feedback from services and supports also indicated that this introduction to self-advocacy was essential in supporting people’s awareness of their human rights and the right to speak up for their rights.
Question:
1. What awareness-raising campaigns/training are the Irish Government undertaking to address poor awareness of the rights of people with intellectual disabilities ?
Article 9 – Accessibility
Sixty per cent of participants said that buildings, housing, transport and information are still not accessible.
Issues:
Participants at Platform consultation events said that many of them are still excluded because of a lack of technology, connectivity (especially in rural areas or when ageing parents/care workers do not have the skills to support their connection to online activities) and confidence.
For those with physical or multiple disabilities, poor accessibility in public spaces remains consistently challenging. Many find it impossible or difficult to (safely) navigate their community spaces, public buildings and transport, and do not receive information in an accessible format. Difficulties locating and accessing information about the accessibility of public places prevent people with intellectual disabilities from travelling independently.
Where adaptations in supports and services may have occurred, the lack of involvement of people with intellectual disabilities themselves leads to adaptations being inadequate, poorly thought out and mismanaged.
63% of participants at the Platform consultations said that they needed access to better public transport. They raised issues with wheelchair access on buses and trains. Specifically, people cannot book wheelchair spaces and confidently plan journeys .
Accessible transport is particularly lacking in rural areas, which impacts people with intellectual disabilities’ participation and access to services, including community activities.
Attempts have been made to provide barrier-free design for all new homes (social housing and private housing), however the standards used are still not adequate and rarely take account of the needs of a person with an intellectual disability e.g. high proportion of homeless applicants have health and social care needs to live independently but housing design rarely provides increased space for support personnel to stay or provide in-home supports.
Questions:
1. What accessible support is the Irish Government putting in place to ensure people with an intellectual disability have affordable access to the technology and skills needed to use the internet?
2. What is the Irish Government doing to check how moving services online affects people with intellectual disabilities, and what is it doing to help them if they face problems?
3. What is the Irish Government doing to ensure public spaces schemes fully consider the needs and views of people with intellectual disabilities before and throughout implementation?
Article 12 – Equal Recognition Before the Law.
Article 12 of the CRPD recognises that persons with disabilities have the right to equal recognition before the law. This includes the right to make decisions about their own lives; including financial, legal, and personal matters, and to have access to the support they may need to exercise that legal capacity. For people with intellectual disabilities, this means being supported in making decisions, not having decisions made for them. The denial or restriction of financial autonomy is a denial of legal capacity and a violation of Article 12.
Issues:
Limited Financial Autonomy:
A significant number of participants (46%) at the Platform’s regional events reported that they wanted more control over their own money. This highlights ongoing restrictions on the ability of people with intellectual disabilities to manage their finances, which may stem from overreliance on substitute decision-making by families, guardians, or services.
Lack of Support for Supported Decision-Making:
There is a gap in training and support for service providers and family members on how to implement supported decision-making in practice. Without proper guidance, the default continues to be paternalistic control over financial matters rather than empowering the person to make their own decisions with support as needed.
Inadequate Implementation of Legal Capacity Reform:
Although Ireland has taken steps to reform its capacity legislation, there are ongoing concerns about the implementation of the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015, particularly whether it is being operationalised in a way that supports people with intellectual disabilities to exercise their rights.
Questions.
1. What steps is the Government taking to ensure that people with intellectual disabilities are supported to exercise full legal capacity, particularly with regard to managing their own finances, as required under Article 12 of the CRPD?
2. How is the Government ensuring that families, guardians, and service providers receive training and guidance on supported decision-making in line with the CRPD and the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015?
3. What monitoring mechanisms are in place to ensure that people with intellectual disabilities are not subjected to substitute decision-making in financial and personal matters without access to support for decision-making?
Article 19 – Living independently and being included in the community.
Article 19 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) affirms the right of all persons with disabilities to live independently and be included in the community, with the same range of choices and control over their lives as others. This includes the right to choose where and with whom they live, and to access the necessary support services to live independently and participate fully in community life.
Issues:
Lack of Choice and Control in Living Arrangements:
At the Platform’s regional events, 59.5% of participants reported that they do not have the support, choice, control, or flexibility they need to live independently and meet their personal goals. Many people with intellectual disabilities continue to live in settings not of their choosing, with limited influence over who they live with or how they are supported.
Inadequate Support Services:
While acknowledging that increased demand and limited budgets have placed strain on local authorities, the current range of independent living supports remains insufficient. Support services are often rigid, under-resourced, or tied to residential models that do not promote autonomy or community inclusion.
Barriers to Community Inclusion:
People with intellectual disabilities face structural barriers that isolate them from full participation in community life, including lack of accessible transport, limited social inclusion initiatives, and inadequate personal assistance or community-based supports.
Questions:
1. What concrete steps is the Government taking to ensure that people with intellectual disabilities have real choice and control over where and with whom they live, and access to flexible, person-centred supports that enable them to live independently and be fully included in the community, as required under Article 19 of the CRPD?
2. How is the Government supporting and resourcing local authorities to expand community-based housing options and address broader barriers to inclusion—such as access to transport, public services, and social participation—for people with intellectual disabilities?
Article 21 of the UNCRPD recognises the right of people with disabilities to freedom of expression and opinion, including the freedom to seek, receive, and impart information on an equal basis with others. For people with intellectual disabilities, this includes the right to receive information in formats they can understand and to be supported to communicate in ways that work best for them.
Issues
Participants at the Platform’s regional events raised two key concerns:
1. Getting information in ways I can understand (34.1%), such as Easy-to-Read, plain language, and visual supports.
2. Knowing who to talk to if I have questions about my rights and experience of discrimination (39.6%)—highlighting a gap in both accessible information and support services.
The lack of consistent accessible communication from public bodies makes it difficult for people with intellectual disabilities to understand decisions that affect their lives, access services, and advocate for themselves.
Questions
1. What is the Government doing to ensure that all public information—including information about rights, services, and complaints processes—is provided in accessible formats such as Easy-to-Read and plain language, and is made available as standard, not as an add-on?
2. How is the Government supporting public bodies and service providers to develop inclusive communication practices that meet the needs of people with intellectual disabilities and enable them to fully exercise their right to freedom of expression and access to information?
Article 24 – Education
Issues:
Around 31% of participants said that people with intellectual disabilities are not fully able to take part in third-level (“confined to certain subjects”) and further education. There were also concerns around transition planning. Families of young people with intellectual disabilities are anxious about young people’s transitions when leaving school and the impact on health and well-being, with little or no transition planning in place beyond a small number of pilot schemes.
Questions:
1. What is the Irish Government doing to address the high levels of third-level and further education exclusion amongst people with intellectual disabilities?
2. What is the Irish Government doing to prevent the education attainment gap between people with an intellectual disability and non-disabled people from increasing?
3. What is the Irish Government doing to ensure that people with intellectual disabilities are fully included, on an equal basis with non-disabled peers, in mainstream further and higher education, rather than being placed in separate or segregated programmes?
People with intellectual disabilities are still less likely to be employed than their non-disabled peers . A conference held in March 2025 by the Platform in collaboration with Inclusion Ireland stated:
People with an intellectual disability should be employed at the same rate as the rest of the population. The Platform’s vision from the Conference is the employment of people with an intellectual disability in typical workplaces, being paid an equal wage, being supported and included at work, and being given the same opportunities for advancement and growth.
(See Attached Conference Report).
Issues:
The majority of participants (71%) in the Platform consultations said that people with intellectual disabilities still find it difficult to find and keep a job in Ireland. The disability employment gap remains significant, and the pay gap between a non-disabled employee and a person with an intellectual disability who is employed remains undocumented.
Questions:
1. What measures are the Irish Government taking to address the disability employment gap and the disability pay gap, especially concerning people with an intellectual disability?
2. Why has the Irish Government not fully implemented the recommendations of the Make Work Pay report, which aimed to support people with intellectual disabilities to enter, remain in, and progress in employment, and in which committee members of the National Platform, were directly involved?
Article 31 – Statistics and data collection
Accurate, disaggregated data is essential to understand the lived experiences of people with intellectual disabilities and to develop effective, rights-based policies. Without proper data, their needs are often overlooked or misunderstood, leading to gaps in services and supports.
Issues
Employment:
Ireland does not consistently collect disaggregated employment data specifically for people with intellectual disabilities. Existing data often groups all disability types together, masking the specific barriers faced by people with intellectual disabilities.
Education outcomes:
There’s a lack of publicly available data on school completion, transitions to further/higher education, and mainstream vs. segregated settings for people with intellectual disabilities.
Health access and outcomes:
Data on the healthcare experiences, health inequalities, and life expectancy of people with intellectual disabilities is limited and not routinely collected.
Housing and independent living:
Statistics on living arrangements and access to independent living supports for people with intellectual disabilities are fragmented and often do not capture choice or quality of life indicators.
Legal capacity and decision-making:
There is no national data on the use of substitute decision-making vs. supported decision-making, especially under the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act.
Question:
1. How does the Irish Government identify and address gaps in data collection on people with intellectual disabilities—particularly in key areas such as employment, education outcomes, access to healthcare, housing, and supported decision-making—and what concrete steps is it taking to ensure that disaggregated, rights-based data is gathered in line with Article 31 of the UNCRPD?
This shadow report highlights the ongoing exclusion and discrimination experienced by people with intellectual disabilities in Ireland, despite the State’s obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).
People with intellectual disabilities continue to be excluded from decision-making that directly affects their lives, including the development of laws, policies, and services. The lack of core funding for the National Platform of Self-Advocates, the only national organisation run and led by people with intellectual disabilities, undermines the right to be consulted under Article 4.3 of the Convention.
Barriers to equality remain across multiple areas: in employment, where people with intellectual disabilities face some of the lowest participation rates; in education, where inclusion in mainstream further and higher education is still rare; in transport and housing, where inaccessible systems and policies limit independent living and community participation; and in access to information, where public bodies often fail to provide information in formats that people can understand and use.
Participants at our regional events consistently described negative attitudes, inaccessible systems, and unclear pathways to understanding and claiming their rights. While the Irish Government has taken some positive steps, progress is fragmented, slow, and not guided by the voices of those most affected.
We call on the State to fulfil its commitments under the CRPD by taking concrete action to:
• Properly fund and support organisations led by people with intellectual disabilities;
• Eliminate systemic barriers to full inclusion and participation;
• Ensure that information, services, and opportunities are accessible to all, in practice and not just in policy;
• And most importantly, to recognise people with intellectual disabilities as equal citizens, with the right to lead self-determined lives.