Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We are still working on the case we discussed in the Commencement Matter, as the Senator knows. Hopefully, we will get a meeting with the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, to try to progress it.

I welcome the Senator's comments on the fact that it is rights based. That is where the Minister and I are coming from and it is the reason we are excited about it moving to the new Department. For people with disabilities and families who have persons with disabilities it is more than just health. I will also ask the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, to contact the Senator about care of older people. That is not fobbing the matter off, but she is responsible for that area and can give the Senator an update on it.

On St. Mary's Centre, a colleague of Deputy Tully's raised the matter in the Dáil. I was going to go out to meet the residents in St. Mary's but, unfortunately, we were put on level 5 and I did not get the opportunity to do it. I would still like to meet and reassure them in whatever way I can.

Finally, the Senator is absolutely correct about the number of organisations. I could not get over it. After being spokesperson on children for four years, with approximately five organisations representing childcare, on moving to disability matters I discovered there are in excess of 400 organisations representing people with disabilities. It is a mammoth task to get to meet them, but they do fabulous work. Some of them are unique in their particular representation.

That is why we held back on the announcement of how individuals can come forward to the next tranche of participation. We are trying to address the whole communication piece around it. I held a meeting recently online only to discover that Zoom would not work. I apologise to any of the viewers watching but we have learned from that. Every day is a learning day for some of the things we are doing. However, we are trying to work to ensure that as many people as possible can participate. We are working on the communication piece so we can include as many as possible. All of the disability CHOs have disability consultative forums as well. That is something I will work on with the HSE in order to promote participation.