Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I should have said that we have brought in the National Disability Authority, NDA, to evaluate these projects. I wish to thank it for doing so. The Higher Education Authority, HEA, and the NDA are evaluating these projects. Before I launched the call for funding, I met with representatives from the NDA to discuss this matter. I also met them briefly again at a conference I attended yesterday and had the opportunity to thank them for their work. Project plans come in and are evaluated by the HEA and the NDA and money is then approved and disbursed for the project plans using the allocation I outlined. There will also be an evaluation of the projects post implementation to assess effectiveness and impact. This is very much a starting point. There is much more we need to do in this space. This is €3 million to get the wheels moving in terms of using best practice to identify what is happening well across the country and seeking to expand that. It is also there to empower HEIs to come up with their own plans. There have been workshops at which there has been brainstorming with HEIs, a sharing of ideas and presentations from the HEA and the NDA.

See this speech in context