Dr. Fergal Lynch:

I will respond, in the first instance, Chairman, if I may. I thank the Deputy for her various questions. I hope that some of them will have been answered in respect of the protocol where I underline our wish to ensure that we seek to ratify the optional protocol as soon as we possibly can rather than waiting for the end of the reporting cycle.

On co-ordination and implementation, there is a significant architecture to ensure that it happens and it is important that we work our way through that. In the first instance, we have the steering group for the national disability integration strategy and the group in respect of the comprehensive employment strategy.

I respectfully disagree that it has just been semantics in moving responsibilities from the Department of Justice to this Department. We have been very active since we took over this area last October and, of course, there is a significant amount of more work to be done. One of the important things that the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, has done is to fund the disability participation and consultation network. That will be a very important group in assisting and supporting people with a disability to input into the process of implementation and being consulted on that. We regard that as being of great importance and want to press ahead with it as much as we possibly can.

I can confirm that the Employers for Change initiative is already in place and is producing some positive results. We have, obviously, a distance to go yet but there are some positive results in this.

The Deputy asked about co-ordination from the Department of the Taoiseach. It is always a matter for the Government to decide who co-ordinates actions that apply right across different Departments and agencies but I am conscious that the Government made a very specific decision to assign disability services to our Department with a clear intention that we would have responsibility for co-ordination functions, which we have taken on enthusiastically. We have a history in co-ordinating other areas such as First 5 in the early years area. We also have a number of other strategies where we co-ordinate, including the National Strategy for Women and Girls 2017-2020; the National Traveller and Roma Inclusion Strategy, 2017 – 2021; and other such strategies in the equality sphere.

We are well-positioned to co-ordinate and to do what we possibly can in that respect. It is never an easy function because it involves cajoling and encouraging other Departments and agencies to get on board and work with us but we have a good record in other areas of doing that. While we always welcome the support of the Department of the Taoiseach, my understanding is that the Government’s view is that it is this Department that will carry out this co-ordination. That is, obviously, a matter at all times for the Government to decide.

The disability budget for 2022 will be an Estimates process. We are already working on our Estimates process for next year. Similarly, in the health sphere, the Department of Health's function in this area is being transferred from that the Department to here and we will also be closely involved in that Estimates process over the next number of months.

One way or another we are showing reasonable form. For example, we have increased the funding on the decision support service from €3.5 million in 2020 up to €5.8 million in 2021. I hope that that is a practical indication of the extent to which we place an emphasis on ensuring that this important service will be properly up and running and operational.

I hope that I have covered most of the Deputy’s questions. The Deputy also asked about the Access and Inclusion Model, AIM. That, if I may say so, is one of our success stories. The numbers who have benefited from the targeted services under AIM are some 15,000 children since it started in 2016. The total budget has gone up from €43 million to €48 million. It has benefited many more children in addition to the 15,000 who were the beneficiaries of targeted supports and it supports approximately 3,600 childcare providers. It has won awards both here and internationally and is generally regarded as something of a success story. That is not to say for a moment that we are resting on our laurels or anything like that. AIM is due to be evaluated. This is under way at the moment and is due to be completed in February 2022.

According to an independent review carried out on the second year of the AIM's operations, 78% of parents reported that their children had benefited from it. A similar proportion said the AIM had made the culture of preschool more important. Rightly, speakers have been talking about culture, outlook, support and inclusivity. The AIM programme is all about that. I hope that gives some illustration of this Department's commitment to work in this area.