Ms Sinéad Gibney:

I believe most of those questions are probably directed towards Mr. Lynch. I am happy to pick up on one thing, however. I think it is very helpful to posit the 22 January date. Personally, I would probably do it tomorrow if we could. Absolutely, let us set a date as soon as possible.

Mr. Harris and I were chatting ahead of today's session to try to find an analogy for the optional protocol to the UNCRPD. The best we could come up with was a topical analogy to say that it is like playing a football match without a referee. Essentially, by implementing the optional protocol we are providing for a kind of backstop. The Senator is correct; it will build capacity and capability in the judicial system to deal with these types of complaints and issues. I would also suggest that because this does not exist, cases and remedies are not sought because of people's poor experience with them to date here. Once that is put in place, however, I would imagine we will see an increase in cases coming forward and, exactly as the Senator described, what we will have then is a building of case law. The State needs to see it as being a capability exercise that can really assist in identifying issues and allow the Department then to deal with those issues.

That is all I wanted to comment on. I think most of the other points are related to the Secretary General.