Dr. Aideen Hartney:

I thank the Deputy. Our understanding is that the report on that transport group has been finalised but we are not familiar with its findings as of yet. However it did speak to that issue we have already touched on, namely that transport is a huge challenge that needs to be resolved. This feeds into the wider point about who champions or leads on this. The national disability inclusion strategy, NDIS, concluded at the end of 2022 and the idea is that will be replaced by a United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, UNCRPD, implementation strategy. This will take, again, that whole-of-government approach that underpinned the NDIS and indeed the comprehensive employment strategy but critical in that is that there are obligations and commitments for every Department. Disability is not a siloed issue that sits within one single Department. I think that can be a danger if we are looking for one single entity to champion that; everybody goes "oh that is being taken care of over there, it is not my issue". Certainly any of the advice we give into the system - and that we would support the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth on when developing the UNCRPD implementation strategy - is that every Department would take that seriously and look at the areas in their remit to see how we meet the needs of the disabled population of Ireland just as we would meet the needs of women and men on an equal basis. It is another diversity ground that unfortunately has been left behind a little to date but should be taken as seriously as meeting the needs of any other marginalised group in society. That means everybody needs to be on board and there does need to be the joined-up thinking across the various Departments.