Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. I am supportive of the Bill but I have a couple of questions. This Bill is rushed. We waited a good while for it but it was only published on 9 February and we are now on Committee Stage. There has not been much opportunity to scrutinise the Bill, especially for the many advocacy groups working in this area.

The dialogue forum was established under the recommendations of the report from Dr. Catherine Day in 2018. Now that the area of disability is transferring to the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, will that Department be represented on the dialogue forum?

My second question concerns the disability capacity review. We know that over 90% of people with disabilities are supported through general community health and social services. All of these services will remain under the remit of the Department of Health when the transfer takes place. What is often needed is a combination of specialist disability services and mainstream services, particularly for people with progressive conditions, meaning they will need to make significant changes over time. What mechanisms will be put in place to ensure strong linkages and integration between disability services and mainstream health services?