Dr. Rosalyn Tamming:

I thank the Deputy for those questions. There is a lot in there. I will start with the UNCRPD strategy. The Deputy is correct.

The national disability inclusion strategy was extended for a year with the intention of developing a new strategy during that time. The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth is responsible for leading that process but it got a little bit derailed by the Ukraine crisis and a lot of that team was redeployed. It was really only towards the end of the year that attention returned to it. The Department asked us to put together an options paper to share with the national disability implementation group. We presented to that group on some options, looking at other countries and the approaches they had taken, including the length of the strategy, whether there are pillars of certain things and a focus on certain areas, as well as thinking through some of the structures around it and some of the monitoring issues. It was not very in depth but it generated a conversation. Members of that implementation group submitted some written comments and they will all feed into the strategy. The Department plans to do an extensive consultation during the second quarter of this year and the write-up will happen after that. We will support the Department in that role. Part of our role will be helping the Department to develop a monitoring framework for the new strategy but we will support it with consultation or anything else it needs along the way.

I will hand over to my colleague, Mr. Hunt, to respond on the assessment of need.