Dr. Aideen Hartney:

Absolutely. We talked earlier about how we felt Part 2 of the Disability Act should have been reviewed in tandem with the Education for Persons with Special Needs Act and whether that is still a possibility or not. There would be a fair few areas of the Disability Act where some updates would be required to reflect developments. We suggest that the entire piece of legislation is looked at, rather than a section in isolation. There could be stuff on the employment question that could be tackled through Part 5. Part 4 is an interesting one in terms of genetic information, disclosure of that and how it works in tandem with GDPR. There have been developments since 2005 that could be reflected in the Act. We would like the definition of “universal design” broadened in terms of section 6 of the Act. It is probably just timely to look at it all and look at it as a holistic piece of legislation that could underpin implementation of UNCRPD in an Irish context. Plans for the various sectors of activity would be helpful in that regard. Tying to them to just a few Departments was of its time and it is time to take another look at that.