26th March 2010

UN CONVENTION SAYS PEOPLE WITH A DISABILITY HAVE EQUAL RIGHT TO MANAGE THEIR MONEY – INCLUSION IRELAND

Legislation is needed to provide guidelines to financial institutions on the right of people with a disability to open bank accounts, take out loans and manage their own money. Inclusion Ireland is aware of cases where people with a disability have been refused bank accounts because of their disability. New legislation should ensure there are guidelines and definitions for ‘testing’ capacity. Current capacity legislation dates back to the Lunacy Act of 1871 and contains no guidelines for financial institutions or definition of capacity.

In the past people with an intellectual disability have not been considered able to make decisions about how to manage their money. This has changed in recent years, as more people with an intellectual disability are moving to community settings and with the right support, have proven very capable of managing their money.

Under the 1871 law, a person who is unable to manage his or her own affairs can be made a Ward of Court. From the experience of Inclusion Ireland, this often happens when a person with a disability comes into a large sum of money. There has been growing awareness of the difficulties in applying the 1871 Act in a contemporary setting. The impact of being made a Ward of Court on a person's life is monumental: a person who is made a Ward of Court cannot have a bank account, cannot marry, cannot defend or initiate legal proceedings and cannot transfer residence (for example from a disability service), without the permission of the High Court. This means that if a person is, for example, made a Ward of Court because they are deemed not capable of managing their finances, the Court will not just have jurisdiction over their finances but over every part of their lives. Ireland’s lack of modern capacity legislation has massive implications for many people with an intellectual disability, older people with dementia and people with mental health problems.

Modern legislation in this area is needed before Ireland can ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Ireland was among the first countries to sign the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on March 30th 2007. Then Justice Minister Michael McDowell said it would be ratified “as soon as possible”. Three years later we are still waiting.

 

Article 12 of the UN Convention says:

(5) States Parties shall take all appropriate and effective measures to ensure the equal right of persons with disabilities to own or inherit property, to control their own financial affairs and to have equal access to bank loans, mortgages and other forms of financial credit, and shall ensure that persons with disabilities are not arbitrarily deprived of their property.

 

ENDS

EVENT: Inclusion Ireland, Amnesty International Ireland and the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Trinity College Dublin are calling on the Government to urgently ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and will hold a joint press conference on this issue on Tuesday 30th March 2010 at 1.30pm in the School of Nursing and Midwifery, D’Olier St., Dublin 2.       

GO TO WEBPAGE OF CAMPAIGN FOR MODERN CAPACITY LEGISLATION & RATIFICATION OF THE UN CONVENTION

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