Dr. Robert Mooney:

I thank the Deputy for the question. I cannot speak on behalf of the Department across all policy areas about how comprehensively or specifically various different elements of disability inclusion and conventions have been applied. I know that within the circular economy and the area of transport, responsibility for which sits with the Department of Transport, these key considerations have been applied in the latest strategies. In 2022, we reached out to organisations and communities of people with disabilities. We recognised from that engagement it was not effective. We are now applying a much more systematic approach, including those key considerations. As I said, Ms Gilmartin and her team on the sustainable development goal side have led out on that in 2023. They will bring that into our national dialogue programme.

The core component is that it is not only our Department that is working on this challenge. As Ms Gilmartin mentioned, the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth is the lead Department for this area. We are actively engaging with that Department on the best approach to take and how we can deliver a more systematic approach to the inclusivity of this form of engagement across all Government policies relating to climate, which is the specific area about which I am talking. I reiterate that the purpose of the dialogue is to engage more broadly with people in society. There are some components of the dialogue that are our policy priority areas, about which we want to talk to people. However, much of the dialogue allows for the emergence of key challenges and issues people want to raise. We are hearing from people about the challenges they are experiencing. We are not prescriptive in that sense. In that way, we can engage with a broad range of people across policy areas and then communicate those challenges to the policy leads across government and in our Department. Ms Gilmartin might also like too respond to the question that was posed.