Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

In my question I asked for the date on which the Minister will publish the new national children's strategy. Could the Minister elaborate on that? What level of civil society engagement will be included in the consultation process and what resources will be allocated? Will there be an implementation plan to go alongside it? Are we waiting for the end of the process or can we do things along the way with newer and fresher thinking, for which I commend the Minister?

I am minded to refer to the third goal of the current national children's strategy, and I do so because of something I was exposed to this morning. It states that children will receive quality supports and services to promote all aspects of development. The Minister will agree that particular goal has not been achieved in the cases of far too many children heretofore. This morning I met a delegation of mainly young parents of children with Rett syndrome, a rare disease affecting some 60 children across the entire island of Ireland; we did so in the context of International Rare Diseases Day on 29 February. This morning we heard the reality of what those parents must cope with. These are children who are not only physically disabled but intellectually disabled as well. It is terrible to think the system in any way would create a hierarchy of disability and address a particular cohort first. These young children, virtually all of them female, present after 15 to 18 months of a normal infancy. This is very important and I urge the Minister, in the context of International Rare Diseases Day, to look at the needs of children with disabilities as an important focus in the national children's strategy. Those needs cannot be left as an equality issue under the Department of Justice and Law Reform or a health issue under the Department of Health. Children with special needs, particularly those with an intellectual and physical disability, should have their needs and interests loom large in the consideration of the new strategy.

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