Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I know the Minister of State would. What is the reason? Are we that inefficient? We expect the public service to be efficient, get out there, do a job and deliver, and yet the Oireachtas takes two years to pass a largely technical Bill. Nonetheless, the Bill is welcome.

Significant progress has been made on the more important issue of delivery of services for people with disabilities. We have seen the bringing together of services and the engagement the Minister of State has had with the NGO sector. We have seen incremental wins; not the type of wins we would like, but certainly incremental wins. I consider disability a whole-of-government issue where the Departments of Education, Social Protection and others need to work together. Memorandums of understanding are needed. We saw it in action when the lady from Achill Island who was on disability allowance, got the opportunity to do a PhD and was faced with the prospect of losing her allowance. The Minister, Deputy Humphreys, intervened to make sure that did not happen. Similarly, the Minister, Deputy Harris, made an intervention for Mr. Tom Clonan's son to ensure he got the supports he needed.

These are positive examples of Departments working together and of a whole-of-government response. The Minister of State has led many such examples, which I do not have the time to go into, but I have worked closely with her on a number of issues she has driven forward significantly. While I wish these services well under the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, I hope we will continue to see the forging together of a whole-of-government response so that, when there are difficulties, Departments step up to the plate and work together to resolve them.

I have no issue with what is happening in this legislation because I know it is technical. It happened when the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform was created and when other Departments were created subsequently. However, going forward, the Houses of the Oireachtas have questions to answer as to why this has taken so long.