Ms Áine Flynn:

I will follow up some on some of the welcome points made by Professor Flynn on accessibility of DSS systems and the digital first approach. That was a clear learning from other jurisdictions we have engaged with, namely, England, Wales, Scotland and provinces of Canada. The advice was clear not to end up wedded to manual and paper-based processes as they became cumbersome and ultimately did not serve the person. We are mindful that an exclusive digital platform could be alienating and we do not intend that should happen. With that in mind, we have engaged with focus groups. We have procured the services of Inclusion Ireland to mobilise representative focus groups to look our systems and how people engage with us. So far, feedback is positive and people have been broadly receptive to the idea of engaging with this digitally. We think it provides better guidance to work through the documentation. We cannot help it, but the documentation is complex. The Act requires many levels to the process, for example, to register a co-decision-making agreement. We hope a digital format enables the user to be guided through more easily. That does not exclude the requirement for workarounds and we will provide for those.

Professor Flynn made the point well that everything needs to be kept under review. We have to be ready to come back and say what is and is not working, bearing in mind who we exist to serve.