Ms Nuala Ward:

I will answer the Senator's last question first and then hand over to my colleague, Mr. Leonard, to address the others.

It is really interesting that the Senator used the phrase "the medical model of disability". She is absolutely right that we must as a country move away from that definition of disability. The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, UNCRC, again, in its concluding remarks to this country, has stated that the State must ensure that all legislation on disability be updated. It is old-fashioned, it is out of date and it must move to a child-centred, rights-based definition of disability. At the most fundamental level, therefore, we must start with our legislation. That is really important. That is where we would begin.

Before I hand over on the integration of services and how to improve them, to come back to legislation, we said in our statement that the amendment to the general scheme of the childcare Bill is starting to look at putting the co-ordination between agencies on a statutory basis. It has not gone far enough. We have already been to the committee and we have raised it with the Department as it says that bodies "may" work together and that the Minister "may" set guidance. We now say that that has to be "should" and that agencies must be statutorily obliged to work together in the best interests of children. Those would be the two asks at a most basic primary legislation level that this State should take on for these children.

I will hand on to Mr. Leonard for the remainder.