Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I share the Deputy's and the committee's desire to see the optional protocol signed and fully ratified. That is why we place the focus on getting the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Act passed. It look longer than I wished but the final product is better. The Deputy made the point that legislation has to be there, but it has to be fit for purpose. The delay over the summer in particular, when we looked at certain sections again and went back to engage further with the Department of Health, led to stronger legislation coming forward.

With regard to the broad priorities for the Department on the disability front this year, the first is to fully implement that Act. A number of regulations and provisions have to be commenced both under the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015 and the 2022 Act, as well as the regulations and statutory instruments that allow for the Decision Support Service to be fully up and running.

The second is bedding down the transfer of functions. That is a considerable change. A budget of €2.5 billion will move from the Department of Health to my Department's budget line. There will be a brand new reporting relationship between the HSE and my Department. That is a major change which, will take time to bed down. We have to be very honest about that. It will not be perfect from day one. I am happy Mr. Bernard Gloster is taking on the role of CEO of the HSE. I worked closely with him as CEO of Tusla over the past two and a half years and I know his commitment, strength and ability as a public servant. I look forward to continuing to build that relationship, especially as I will be engaging with him and Tusla with a very strong disability focus. We all know the HSE has a massive workload but I will continuously come down to tell it to focus on disability and ask what it is doing on disability. That is the whole idea behind the change that the Tánaiste drove. There was a feeling that within the considerable work the HSE has to do, disability was just not getting the level of attention it needed.

With regard to when that transfer takes place, I spoke earlier on about my deep concern about children's disability services and the lack of availability of therapists in many parts of the country. The HSE will produce the roadmap on progressing disability services but my Department will have a key input. We hope to set out short-, medium- and long-term measures to get more therapists into CDNTs and improve relationships between the HSE and parents. Those relationships have become fraught in many areas. That will be a process. Staffing levels in some of the CDNTs are very low and it will take time to build that up. We also have to work on retention and holding what we have.

Another key element is the disability action plan. It is particularly important with regard to responding to the capacity review. The capacity review has laid out what we believe we will need for all sorts of disabilities from adult and day services to residential and children's services up to 2032. We will do an action plan to respond to the first four years of that regarding the steps that need to be taken.

The new national disability strategy will be drafted during this year. We hope to integrate a clear mechanism in to that for monitoring the continued realisation of the UNCRPD. There are many other bits but those are key priorities this year.