Mr. Damien Walsh:

That is our plan. The work that ILMI is doing which Peter is leading is funding dependent. It is also dependent on getting that critical mass of disabled people. Individually it will be very challenging to change how education is delivered in our area. However, if we build that union of disabled people and we are the point of contact, we can build that energy. There is a huge appetite for it. We are funded by the Department of rural and community development. We hope to launch DPOs in Waterford and Tipperary later this year. We are doing extensive work in Dublin to include the four local authority areas. We are getting that general momentum. Peter has been delivering in Geneva on this.

Senator Clonan asked if things are getting worse or better. Often when systems change seems very slow, the natural reaction is to say that nothing is happening. However, at international level this has been recognised as being progressive. Our colleagues in the DPO network are addressing conferences and state parties about this co-creation process. We have to acknowledge that the CD really pushed hard and we pushed them hard on that. That is international best practice. As John said earlier, the trick is to get the structures to make sure it is implemented. That will always be the issue because while we might have a crisis at an individual level, we need to address that but we also need to go for the bigger picture as well.