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

I thank the Senator. I am repeatedly asked about the UNCRPD and the optional protocol. It is a programme for Government commitment. However, when we did the programme for Government we were in a space where we had sight of a timeline for going before the UN, which was mid-2022. That does not seem to be the timeline at the moment. The Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, and I are still committed to ratifying the optional protocol, even before it has been seen by committee, for a simple reason. As I said last week in the Dáil, we must ensure all Departments are on line so we can exercise all options. When I talk about exercising all options, there are certain things we as a state need to ensure. If people take their actions further when it is fully ratified, we will need to have all the State mechanisms in place.

The Senator asked a valid question about whether I am doing all this myself. Absolutely not. I am working with the various steering groups, including the disability steering group, and the national disability inclusion strategy, which is made up of parents, carers, academics, advocates, designated public officials and umbrella organisations. The current iteration of it is the fifth disability stakeholder group, or DSG 5, and we are in the process of formulating DSG 6. That is where members of disability steering groups sit with representatives from all Departments. I chair it on a quarterly basis. That is one part of the umbrella. Under that, each Department has a disability committee, where they meet regularly with members of the disability steering group. That feeds into and formulates the policy to ensure every Department is working at pace and, when the report is lodged and submitted, the State is in a position to ratify the optional protocol. That is where we are working on that at the moment.

It is important to note the legislative work going on in relation to the decision support services and the decision amendment Bill that is coming before us. These are crucial pieces. Wardship is being abolished. There are many layers within it. Everybody is working in a parallel process to ensure that we get the State report submitted and that we are then on track to have decision support services operational and in a position to ratify the optional protocol. "Nothing about us, without us" is the method of it and that is where I am working with the various groups. Does that answer the question?