Ms Derval McDonagh:

I might bring in Ms Locke-Reilly at various points if that is okay. To address the issue around the resourcing of the CDNTs and focusing on assessment, there needs to be a bit of thought, at this committee's level, put into the legislation we currently have in Ireland and what might need to change in that regard. Obviously the EPSEN Act is under review this year. That has been welcomed broadly by advocates and we are working on submissions around that and supporting families and people with intellectual disabilities to be part of that consultation process. That is hugely important. We need to get the legislation underpinning inclusive education right but there is another piece of core legislation, the Disability Act 2005, which is no longer fit for purpose and needs to be reviewed. In an ideal world, the Disability Act and the EPSEN Act would have been reviewed in tandem because they talk to one another. They should put children, hopefully, at the centre and look at what children and families need. Often the fixation on assessment is a direct result of the fact that it is the only thing people are legally entitled to. Under the Disability Act parents are legally entitled to an assessment of their child's needs but they are not entitled to any services or supports after that. It is no wonder there is such a focus on assessments because if that is the only thing I can get legally I am going to focus on that. For many children, that assessment is absolutely necessary, valuable and an essential part of their whole plan but it is not the only part and should never be. Assessment should be a dynamic process that is part of the supports for a child. It should be ongoing and reflective of a child's needs as the family's needs change. If I was to name a solution, it would be to look at the legislation that is there right now and what needs to be reviewed so we can better serve children. The Disability Act is a key piece that needs to be looked at.

The Deputy mentioned the cost of disability. We have called for an implementation plan around the cost-of-disability report. The Government has published the cost-of-disability report but we need to see that implementation plan as well. We called for an additional and specific cost-of-disability payment in budget 2023. We were pleased to see that there was a once-off disability payment specifically for disabled people but really that should only be a stepping stone to a more fundamental change in social welfare payments for people and a stand-alone cost-of-disability payment.

The Deputy asked about the Inclusive Education Conference. That was a phenomenal opportunity to bring people together who possibly would have been seen as having very different opinions about the future of inclusive education. When we were in a room together, there was a lot more that we had in common. Our plan around that is to publish a report. It is being finalised at the moment and will be published in February with a number of agreed recommendations from the participants highlighting what needs to change over the next number of years. Fundamentally, what we have created out of that conference is an inclusive education alliance, which is a group of people and organisations that are coming together with a shared purpose of working towards an inclusive education system. The committee will be hearing more about that over the coming months as we bed down that alliance of organisations and interested people. We will certainly share that conference report with the committee. Hopefully that will give some really solid, concrete information about the next steps that should be taken on the path to inclusive education.

The final point, which is where I will bring in Ms Locke-Reilly, was about solutions for children. I mentioned assessments of need and legislation but ultimately what some of this comes down to is proper integrated care and support for children. When we see integrated care work well, that is when all of the organisations that may be involved in a child's life come together to focus on that child and that child's plan, and that family's plan, develops from there.

Ms Locke-Reilly may want to share some experience she has of both integrated care and care that is not integrated and her thoughts on that.