Robert O'Donoghue (Dublin Fingal West, Labour)
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444. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if any public body or publicly funded body under his Department's aegis are not compliant with Part V of the Disability Act 2005; if Part V applies to all subsidiaries of such bodies; if, in cases where it does not, he has the power to extend such a requirement, either through Ministerial order or through funding requirements; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15491/25]

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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All public bodies under the aegis of this Department are deemed compliant with Part 5 of the Disability Act 2005 by the National Disability Authority (NDA).

The NDA, under the aegis of the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, has a statutory role to monitor compliance with Part 5 of the Disability Act 2005 in the public sector. Each public body under the aegis of this Department is responsible for ensuring they meet the annual statutory disability target and comply with Part 5 of the Disability Act 2005. The legal obligations and duties are set out in the Disability Act 2005 and a Minister cannot extend them beyond what the primary legislation has provided. There is no power to issue an order.

This Department collates and provides information in the format required by the NDA on behalf of public bodies. My Department’s Monitoring Committee, established under the Act, submitted the statistics to the NDA in respect of the 2023 Part 5 Returns for public bodies under the aegis by the required deadline of 30th June 2024. These statistics will shortly be published by the NDA in their Annual Report on Compliance with Part 5 of the Disability Act 2005. NDA published Annual Reports for the years 2020, 2021 and 2022 are available on the National Disability Authority website: .

The process of collating statistics from public bodies under the aegis for the 2024 Part 5 returns will commence shortly.