Civil servants were put in the front line of dealing with profoundly political questions about the rights of people with disabilities, Fine Gael TD Mr Jim O'Keeffe told the Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs yesterday.
The meeting was due to discuss the position Ireland was adopting in relation to a proposed UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities. The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Mr McDowell, and the Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Mr Tom Kitt, were both due to attend.
This followed a letter from Mr Kitt to Mr McDowell, reported in The Irish Times last month, suggesting that his Department had opposed the EU taking a strong common position on disabled rights.
However, neither minister was present at the meeting. Mr Kitt was abroad, and Mr McDowell sent his apologies shortly before the meeting was due to start.
Officials from both departments made presentations instead.
"We need the Minister here to deal with profoundly political issues," Mr O'Keeffe said. "It boils down to whether Ireland is prepared to support a rights-based approach or not. Officials are honestly not in a position to answer the questions we want to put."
He quoted from the paper presented to the meeting on behalf of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform by Ms Anne Doyle.
This said: "As the department responsible for disability equality policy, the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform had to satisfy itself that any common position was entirely compatible with Government policy in this area.
"Discussions between the two departments took place to ensure that the common Union position would be consistent with Government policy in all its aspects."