Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I might start with that. In the run-up to the referendum, I announced an interdepartmental group meeting to bring all the relevant Departments together to see what barriers exist and how we can address them. My understanding is that has met twice so far. It will bring its report back to Cabinet for one of our July meetings.

Prior to the referendum campaign, I commissioned legal advice in terms of looking at from a purely legalistic point of view areas where Ireland is non-compliant. That report has come back. The legal barriers were perhaps less significant than some may have understood previously in terms of ratification. We await the report of the interdepartmental group. Members will have heard from myself and indeed from the Taoiseach that we are looking to ratify, certainly by the end of this term of Government. There is a strong determination to do so.

The review of the equality Acts is ongoing. On our side, I have seen an initial draft of what a heads of Bill would look like. Significant work has happened there. The non-disclosure agreement issue is included in that. Officials in my Department liaised very closely with Senator Ruane on that. I hope for referral either just before Cabinet breaks for August or early in the autumn, and hope to make a referral to pre-legislative scrutiny at that stage. We are close to bringing forward a Bill to go to this committee for pre-legislative scrutiny.

There is also ongoing work on conversion practices. We are looking to build something that tries to address conversion practices for both sexuality and gender identity and looks at them in the context of quasi-therapy and the quasi-religious element. It is challenging to find a definition that deals with both of those areas, but also allows entirely legitimate therapies to take place. We have engaged extensively with the Office of the Attorney General and there has been significant back and forth. A lot of work is happening but there is more to go in terms of having a clear definition that can be used, will withstand legal scrutiny and does not impact on legitimate medical and other practices.

I have prioritised investment in youth services since I became Minister. The budget for youth services has grown by 26% since I became Minister. I think it was €61 million per year, which was a small amount, but the services did amazing work with it. It is now €77 million per year as of last year's budget. I met with the national youth organisations yesterday and had a detailed discussion about their priorities for budget 2025. The Senator may be aware that we recently announced a new youth employability scheme, so there is new investment in the sector to support a youth employability initiative in every education training board in the country. We are looking to reach those young people most distant from the labour market. We are using the youth services to even ask them if they know what Intreo is, if they have ever gone to a social welfare office, if they have a CV and, if not, if we should do one. Those are important soft skills to reach out to those young people.