Dr. Robert Mooney:

I thank the Deputy for his questions. As already stated, in the context of the dialogue, this year we are looking to specifically identify what those key challenges are by engaging actively with DPOs, stakeholder groups and organisations that represent a broad range of people with disabilities.

Ms Gilmartin will talk about the mechanisms the SDG forum has already used this year. These proved very effective. Part of that programme will be: examining the existing challenges; what is the literature telling us in other areas and jurisdictions; what are people doing well; what is effective; what has and has not worked; and designing our engagement programme. We will be finalising that design in the next number of weeks. That will include looking at: how we engage via workshops; what are the specific challenges when trying to deliver a workshop that involves people with disabilities, etc; how do we overcome any challenges; and what mechanisms we should put in place. To answer an earlier question, we will provide more time with respect to the additional challenges that may arise.

Online consultation lends itself well to people engaging with the process in order to provide insights and inputs in respect of the climate conversation Equally, we invite representative groups to the national stakeholder forums to make presentations. Those forums involve engagement by between 120 and 150 individuals who represent the various groups, organisations and stakeholders and who speak on their behalf. We engage actively with people. We do so through qualitative workshops and by bringing representatives from the organisations in question together. We also hold a series of in-depth interviews whereby we identify key individuals in society and stakeholder groups in circumstances where we feel we need one-to-one conversations in order to get further insights into the challenges they face or that are faced by the organisations for which they work. We try to deliver a comprehensive programme to capture those insights. There is a rigorous analysis process and a process of feeding that back to the key policy leads in the Department and across government. I will now hand over to Ms Gilmartin, who can comment on the particular methods or processes that were used.