Mr. Liam Walsh:

I wish to intervene briefly and will then pass to Ms Leonard. Deputy Harris spoke about the ongoing cross-departmental work. The main vehicle for that at the moment is the national disability strategy implementation group, chaired by the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch. It draws together all the main players working in that area and tries to co-ordinate the response across the public sector to the delivery of the national disability strategy. That is the main formal vehicle that exists in that space.

The Deputy asked about the structures in the Department. I reiterate a point I made earlier that we have now taken over some of the support to the employment services previously delivered by FÁS. That in itself delivered some degree of rationalisation in that area because that has now been added to our brief and work in the area. In terms of formal structures, within the Department we have a consultative forum, whereby we met people with disabilities mainly to talk about operational issues on the ground as opposed to policy. However, that forum exists and people with disabilities are represented on it. From time to time the Department also holds focus group sessions with targeted groups.