Sheila Terry (Fine Gael)

I second the amendment. It is very important for every Department to prepare a sectoral plan to ensure we have disability proofing across the board. While the Bill will oblige most Departments to provide sectoral plans, we want to go one step further. I support what Senator Tuffy said. This requires us to adopt a new mindset. When dealing with legislation every Department and all legislators need to be cognisant of people with disabilities, which will become a matter of course in the same way that we have equality proofing. We need to take the extra step and ensure we disability proof every Bill and regulation proposed and implemented. We need to provide safeguards to ensure we do not do anything that may cause difficulty or present an obstruction for people with disabilities. In time all Departments will incorporate that way of thinking. In the meantime we will need to provide for it to ensure it gets done. This amendment is worthy of acceptance and I hope the Minister of State will do so.