Dr. Robert Mooney:

I thank the members for their questions. To again address the issue of consultation in a broader sense, while I am responsible for national dialogue, a number of other key strategies and policy initiatives are actively engaging with people with disabilities on the design and implementation of climate policy. The local authority climate action plans are a good example of a key initiative that is beginning in earnest this year. A key element of that is active consultation at local authority level with a broad range of stakeholders and the inclusion of a community climate action officer with a specific duty of outreach to local organisations at that level. I cannot speak to the progress of that as it is my colleague's area but I will flag that is happening. A lot of work has gone in the past year and a half to establish mechanisms to ensure that people are engaged at that local authority level in order to address some of the issues that have been raised. Again, I cannot speak to other areas in detail but the circular economy, the national adaptation framework, sustainable transport and sustainable cities all have key requirements to engage with people with disabilities in their design and the delivery policy. It is not just within the national dialogue. In 2023, there are very key plans for active engagement with people with disabilities across all these key areas that have been mentioned.

On the rights-based approach, from the perspective of dialogue, as I mentioned, our approach is to establish what the key performance indicators are. That sounds like a very specific term but what I mean by it are what helps us deliver our ambition to become climate neutral by 2050 in a way that supports, enables and engages people in co-creating those solutions and improves people's quality of life. That is essentially what the social contract on climate action means. That is at the centre of the national dialogue and is our filter through which we are actively engaging with everybody across society. It is the recognition that this presents challenges for many people and very specifically those living with disabilities. When we are able to define those very clearly, we should be able to say these are the key challenges and barriers to taking action for the general population. There will then be specific additional challenges for people with disabilities, people living in coastal communities or others who are, as we say, vulnerable to that transition. The approach we are taking is about how we can deliver this but also improving that quality of life. That is the essence of the rights-based approach.

My colleague, Ms Gilmartin, who oversees our SDGs, has joined us. SDGs have been mentioned and they have a rights-based component.