Mr. Niall Brunell:

Two roles are set out under the convention. There is the independent monitoring role and the focal point and co-ordination role. In the Irish context, since we ratified in 2018 the independent monitoring role rests with the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, IHREC. That was put on a legislative footing when we commenced the assisted decision-making Act last year. In terms of assessments, where we are strong or weak, where we are compliant or where we are not, that is where that work rests. There is also the periodic review process where the committee in Geneva itself receives reports from the State and from civil society. The State appears before the committee in Geneva and the committee will do its own assessment of Ireland's compliance. We submitted our State report in 2021 and we are awaiting a review date now.

On the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth's role, we are the focal point in the co-ordinating mechanism. Therefore we are not the monitoring body but it is our responsibility to pull the different strands of Government or the State that need to work towards the UNCRPD implementation together and then produce a collective, cohesive and co-ordinated set of policies, strategies, interventions and so on to ensure that we are meeting our UNCRPD obligations. That is probably most strongly being done in the national disability strategy now as it would have been done under the national disability and inclusion strategy previously.