Ms Clare Duffy:

I thank the Senator and I will start with the final question. As Ms Cox said in the opening statement, and as I believe Adam Harris of AsIAm also said when he appeared before this committee, having more school places is a critically important first step. There are many things which must come after that like the culture within the school and actually having genuine inclusivity. Having the place is only a first step.

The Senator had many questions so I hope I have taken them down correctly. She is right to acknowledge the positive changes that have happened for carers over the past decade or so. Many good things have happened.

One of these, for example, is the new pension provision which will come into force on 1 January 2024 for long-term carers. These are for people who have been caring for more than 20 years. Ms Cox and I have been knocking around this sector for so long and we were always giving out about the pension for carers so this is a real positive move forward.

The Senator specifically mentioned the referendum which will be happening in November. We do not know the exact wording yet because the interdepartmental group will not be making its recommendations until next month. We are very happy with that and are looking forward to finally getting our hands on Article 41.2 and bringing it up to speed and to date, modernising it and having an article which actually values the care provided by men and women. That is very important. Yes, the vast majority of carers are women but men do it too and we must also value that.

Ms Cox and I, she more so than I, will be involved for the equality campaign in the run-up to the November referendum.

The Senator also mentioned the audit of respite provision and asked what we can do to fix the problem we have within respite. I acknowledge that there have been huge efforts by the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, and others to try to increase respite provision. Each one of the new CHOs had a new respite centre. However, it is still grossly inadequate to meet the level of demand. When Ms Cox said we need an audit of respite provision, we actually do not know how many respite beds exist in the system. We do not know today how many specialist respite beds there are for children with profound physical or intellectual disabilities. We do not know. We should not measure respite in beds so apologies, that is my mistake. Another issue is that the respite places that are available can change very quickly. If HIQA issues a new standard that the beds have to be so far apart, we have just lost so many respite beds in the system. It is understandable but we have to begin by saying how many respite places exist and for whom. We start at the very beginning and build it up from there.