Dr. Fergal Lynch:

I am sure that Ms Gibney will want to respond to a number of points. Perhaps she might want to comment, in particular, on the funding for IHREC. I am sure she will have a view on that.

On the question of the Irish Sign Language Act 2017, we will pursue that. I am not familiar with what the exact position is on the issue. Given that the Act has now commenced, hopefully, that approach should be possible.

To deal with a few of the other issues in relation to departmental roles, we are very conscious that different Departments have very different roles in relation to the UNCRPD. As the Deputy might expect in many areas of cross-Government co-operation, some Departments are very enthusiastic and interactive and others are perhaps not so. We have similar experience in other areas such as early years, youth services and so on. Therefore, it is a challenge to encourage full participation by all. In our implementation plan for the UN convention, one of the areas that we will look at is identifying the best architecture and way of encouraging co-operation and collaboration between Departments. It is vital to get all of it right.

I wish to comment on a few points raised by Ms Gibney raised because they are very important. I want to respond to, and agree with, a number of points she has made. In the context of the human rights and public sector duty, the Minister is actually going to speak on the topic this afternoon for local government reports that have been launched by Disability Federation Ireland. It is an IHREC-funded initiative. We also place a great emphasis on it. In our own Department's statement of strategy, we placed a very specific emphasis and included a specific addendum setting out our approach to that requirement. We regard it as being of particular importance. That is going to grow in emphasis in other Departments, as the awareness around it grows.

In terms of some funding issues, the new round of European Social Fund funding prioritises funding for employment and training.

We will push that as much as we possibly can.

As for a response to disability during Covid, I take the points Mr. Harris made about how people with a disability were treated and the experiences they had. We laid a great emphasis on supporting them as much as we possibly could. Disability organisations were represented on a vulnerable persons sub-group that NPHET established, and our Department was closely involved in that. The Department put a lot of effort into co-ordinating and communicating with organisations, people with a disability and people representing people with a disability to keep them in the loop on initiatives and what was happening as the pandemic continued. It is probably true to say we ended up developing an even stronger relationship with a number of organisations on foot of that. Of course, I accept there is much more to be done in that regard.

As for the publication of reports, I know that the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, and the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, are anxious to publish the capacity review as soon as they possibly can. That work is being done on a framework for an action plan. That report should be published in the not-too-distant future, and I absolutely take the point that it forms a very important backdrop to what needs to happen in the future.

Those are my responses to the various points raised.