Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent Ireland Party)
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4. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the reason her Department did not engage with all disability organisations (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [50855/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Government is committed to implementing the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, as ratified by Ireland in 2018. This includes commitment to Article 4(3) which stipulates that State Parties shall closely consult with and actively involve persons with disabilities through their representative organisations in policy making and implementation.

I reject entirely the suggestion that any individual or group, DPO or otherwise, impairment based or otherwise, has been excluded from consultation with my Department. In fact, for the design and development of the National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People, launched on 3rd September, my Department undertook an extensive national formal consultation process which was a genuinely and categorically participative process open to all individuals and groups. Both of the organisations referenced by the Deputy were directly invited to, and did, actively participate in that process on a number of occasions.

Both organisations were invited as a matter of course to several town hall events and had open access to more than 30 focus groups led by the National Disability Authority and both received an invitation to participate in a national survey; in fact, both organisations were invited to, and attended, a dedicated meeting with the National Disability Authority in December 2023 to discuss the Strategy and consultation with Disabled Persons' Organisations - the notes from this meeting were included in the analysis of the consultation.

Both organisations were invited to a key stakeholder event in the summer of last year on the development of the Strategy - both organisations attended this event. Both participated in early scoping engagements in the summer and autumn of 2022 on development of the strategy and the setting of priorities. The two organisations in question were also engaged at a trilateral meeting with the Department in December 2023 and, where appropriate to their various memberships on representative groups, have been engaged as part of broader consultation with, for example, the Disability Stakeholder Group and the Disability Participation and Consultation Network, during the period when those Groups were in situ. In addition to this, any submissions received by my Department in relation to the Strategy, or other matters, from these organisations have been duly considered on an equal basis to any and all submissions received from DPOs.