Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am aware that both of those questions that are live. What I have indicated is that as a result of the initial facilitation process, out of which some of the issues Senator Devine has identified have been expressed again, we have decided that it would be really important to establish this collaborative forum which will report in six months. One of the areas it will be looking at will be to identify the practical supports already identified in the earlier facilitation.

The membership of the collaborative forum will be representative. We have quite a detailed way of trying to ensure the people who will be on the forum will be representative of the different voices in respect of supports people want so that when it makes recommendations to me, I can be confident that is representative and then I can make decisions on the basis of that information. We have asked the collaborative forum to report within six months. If it wishes to report sooner, that is okay with me. I will wait for it to come forward before answering those questions explicitly.