Margaret Murphy O'Mahony (Cork South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Another question I have been trying to raise for a while is whether, in the Minister of State's opinion, the Department of Justice and Equality is the correct home for a national disability authority and disability policy in general. I accept this was a very busy week for the Department of Justice and Equality but I do not believe it is the right home for it. I know that many who advocate for people with disabilities believe that the wider justice agenda means the Department is never fully focused on people with disability.

With regard to the national disability inclusion strategy and the role of the NDA, does the Minister of State consider that another Department would be a better home? In our election manifesto, we included a pledge to create a Department of social protection and disability inclusion. The Minister of State also has a role in social protection and while I do not expect him to criticise the support he gets from the officials in the Department of Justice and Equality, the sheer scale of the other issues the Department must deal with, as happened this week, means that crucial work within the disability sector is being overlooked, although perhaps not intentionally. The Department of Justice and Equality has too many irons in the fire and I ask if it could be brought under the Department of Social Protection.

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