Hildegarde Naughton
Galway West · Fine Gael · Ireland
“It is an absolute commitment in the programme for Government to reduce the pupil-teacher ratio over the lifetime of the Government. The Deputy will appreciate I cannot announce anything here in the Dáil. I have to go into negotiations in relation to the upcoming budget.”
“Where we can, we give guidance and I know schools are very well aware of this. They do this well themselves so that where possible, the more junior classes would have a lower class size.”
“The identification model has to be applied consistently right across the country to have fairness and transparency around it. Under the DEIS strategy to 2035, work is under way in my Department, with colleagues in the Central Statistics Office and across other Departments, to utilise other administrative data sources to help improve how w…”
“The school referred to by the Deputy submitted an application under the additional school accommodation, ASA, scheme for an additional temporary classroom in 2025. This school had previously been approved for a permanent extension under the ASA scheme in 2021 for a two-classroom special education needs unit and one mainstream classroom.”
“A huge amount of work is being done on securing specialist places, be it in special classes or special schools. We are far ahead of where we were this time last year. We had a budget for 400 special classes. I got increased funding in March of this year. We are ahead in relation to forward planning.”
“The general average of pupils to teachers in the primary staffing schedule improved from 26:1 five years ago to 23:1 for the current school year. Average class sizes in primary schools have improved from 24.1 to 22.2 through the investment we are making in schools.”
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“The Act also brought five days of unpaid leave for medical care purposes for carers and parents. The programme for Government also commits to looking at additional workplace flexibility that could be introduced along with an extension to the current parents' leave and benefit entitlements. As the Minister, Deputy Foley, mentioned in her opening statement, this year is the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action on gender equality. Since the last review, notable progress has been made. A new architecture has been put in place to address domestic and gender-based violence with the establishment of the new statutory agency Cuan to lead work in this area.”
“The programme for Government lays out actions to be taken to support such women - those who have caring responsibilities, those who work in care-related areas and women who have additional needs and find themselves in need of care. The Government is committed to increasing the income disregards for carer's allowance over its term with the ultimate goal of phasing out the means test completely. A number of workplace supports were introduced by the last Government aimed at supporting men and women with caring responsibilities. The work life balance Act made provision for the right to request flexible working for parents and carers and the right to request remote work for all employees to further support working families and those with caring responsibilities.”
“A key consideration for actions mooted under this strategy will be the additional difficulties that can arise for disabled people who may experience multiple forms of disadvantage or discrimination where being disabled overlaps with other aspects of their lives such as being from a minority ethnic community, their social class or indeed their gender. In maintaining this focus, the consultation process for the strategy has included targeted engagement with a range of stakeholders representing seldom heard from or otherwise marginalised groups, including those representing the perspective of disabled women and girls. Care is a fundamental element of our society. We must acknowledge that women remain disproportionately responsible for unpaid care work and are overrepresented in lower-paid roles in the care sector.”
“The programme for Government also commits to delivering and fully resourcing a national disability strategy, which is being developed. This builds on and cements a commitment in the last programme for Government to develop an implementation plan for the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. My officials are at a very advanced stage in the development of the strategy and publication is expected in the coming months. The next national disability strategy will operate as a framework for the co-ordination of disability policy across Government ensuring a whole-of-government approach to the advancement of the UNCRPD and collaboration on cross-cutting issues, including that of gender equality and the rights of women with disabilities.”
“A number of employment benefits have been introduced, including enhancements to maternity, paternity and parents' and adoptive benefit. Women have made significant strides in education with a surge in the number of young women taking up STEM subjects. The Government has taken a number of actions to support women's access to and progression in the workplace, including through legislation to support flexible working arrangements. The Government has also made a substantial investment in subsidised childcare and will work over the coming years to further reduce the cost for working families. Members will be aware of the Government's commitment to focusing on disability and disability services and ensuring that all citizens are assisted in reaching their full potential and contributing to society.”
“The Government is committed to taking action to promote gender equality recognising the importance of ensuring that women of all ages get the same opportunity as men to achieve their potential and contribute to society. While progress has been made, challenges remain. Women are more likely than men to live in consistent poverty. Fewer women than men hold the most highly paid jobs. More women than men have a disability. While more Irish women go on to third-level education than men, when they finish their education and enter the workforce, they are not paid as well. The gender pay gap in Ireland stands at just over 9%. This means the average man earns 9% more than the average woman. That said, progress has been made. We are investing more in women's healthcare and in tackling domestic and gender-based violence.”
“I thank speakers for their contributions today to this very important debate, which both celebrates and highlights the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women not just in Ireland but across the globe and highlights the challenges to achieving gender equality. International Women's Day has been celebrated since 1911. The theme for this year is accelerate action. It speaks volumes that despite women playing a full role in every aspect of Irish life, gender inequality continues to be persist and that we must once again strive for further action in this space. Gender equality should not be an insurmountable goal but rather the real lived reality for all women across Ireland.”
“The Deputy can be assured that I am working with my Department and with the HSE in addressing the waiting lists. We are doing everything we can around recruiting more therapists from third level institutions, both domestically and internationally. My door is open in relation to any suggestions the Deputy may have or indeed within her constituency which I will be visiting soon to make sure we are helping these children who need these assessments and these therapies.”
“I agree with the Deputy that more needs to be done. That is an absolute commitment from me, as Minister of State with responsibility for disabilities, and the Government, to look at whatever we can do to make sure that children are getting their therapies. Also, as the Deputy knows, CHO 9 is composed of local health offices of north Dublin, Dublin north centre and north-west Dublin. Some 1,690 assessment of needs applications were received in CHO 9 in 2024. That marks, as I said, an increase of 14% from 2022. I do not know whether I told the Deputy this earlier but as of December 2024, 3,193 assessment of needs in CHO 9 were overdue for completion. An assessment of need administrative hub in CHO 9 will assist with preserving the time of other clinical staff for the purposes of those therapy interventions.”
“The roll-out of regional assessment hubs, including in CHO 9, will see the provision of personnel dedicated to the delivery of assessment of needs, while preserving the time of other clinical staff for the purposes of therapy interventions for children within the CDNT network. I look forward to these measures, and others, being of benefit to children and families accessing these therapy services.”
“The HSE advises that by the end of 2024, in the order of 2,479 assessments of needs were commissioned from private providers during the months of June to December at a total cost of about €8.2 million. The Government has continued this assessment of need waiting list initiative into 2025 with targeted funding that will continue to enable the procurement of these assessments for long-waiting families. The HSE has advised that in CHO 9 in Dublin north-west, 2,086 children were offered an initial contact, individual or group intervention with a CDNT in December 2024, while 2,596 children were waiting for an initial contact at month end. In CHO 9 the demand for assessment of needs has increase by approximately 14% from 2022 to 2024.”
“The current delays in accessing assessments of need as well as therapy services are acknowledged and work is ongoing with the HSE to maximise the capacity of CDNTs to deliver therapy interventions to children and to produce assessments of need. This is being done via recruitment campaigns and other measures. In October 2023, the HSE published a roadmap for service improvement that focuses on the ongoing development of CDNT services to meet current and growing demand. One of these measures is the Government's decision in May 2024 to finance an assessment of need waiting list initiative. This initiative targets those families waiting longest for AONs, with the HSE reimbursing clinicians directly through the procurement of capacity from approved private providers.”
“They are the people I need to listen to as well, who have the lived experience and who are the experts in that area as well. The Deputy can be assured that I will be continuing those engagements to make sure we get this right.”
“I thank the Deputy. I absolutely agree that the school inclusion model has been a real success. I will come back with the figures. It is my understanding that there are about 500 vacancies but I will revert to the Deputy just in case that number has been updated. My door is open in relation to meeting therapists. I have been engaging with service providers, service users and stakeholders since I came into this role. That is absolutely key if we are to get this right and get the policy right. We need to be listening to everyone, including the experts in the area, but also to those with the lived experience, the parents who are trying to get access to services for their children and the people with disabilities of all ages who are trying to get access to services.”
“Also, on further supported service provision, there is ongoing development of additional disciplines to expand the skills mix and applicant pools, including development of the role of health and social care therapy assistant in 2024. In addition, practice education placements in CDNTs continue to be increased, alongside expanding the number of places in higher education to make sure we have the pipeline of therapists coming through.”
“As the Deputy knows, we have the pilot of in-school therapists in Dublin, Cork and Galway being rolled out. He is absolutely correct about recruitment and the need to ensure we are recruiting. We have recruitment efforts across the HSE, section 38 and section 39 organisations to on-board staff and have sustained outreach and engagement, for example, with secondary schools and higher education institutions to expose more students to the rewarding and impactful nature of working in the disability services and CDNTs. Seven of the disciplines working on our CDNTs have been included on the critical skills occupation list, enabling non-EEA nationals to be eligible for a work permit.”
“The progressing disability services roadmap focuses on the ongoing development of CDNT services to meet current and growing demand, as mentioned earlier to Deputy Ward. That includes a number of measures that will attract and retain staff.”
“Most significantly, the CDNT vacancy rate has reduced from 29% in 2023 to 22% in 2024. That is a reduction of 7% nationally. Although recruitment challenges persist, this is a welcome development in the context of an acknowledged international shortage of personnel with the necessary qualifications or experience to fill vacant CDNT posts. In budget 2025, my Department secured €2.84 million in new development measure funding to provide an additional 40 health and social care professionals. That comprises 20 senior and 20 staff grade therapists. There are also 20 therapy assistants to enhance services, including in-reach services for special schools and special classes, and 15 clinical psychology trainee placements, which are critical to attracting and upskilling undergraduates to work in CDNTs post graduation.”
“A CDNT workforce survey was conducted on 16 October 2024. This survey captured staffing levels across various disciplines and grades, providing a snapshot of the current workforce across 93 CDNTs. While this report only provides us with a snapshot in time, with recruitment having continued in the interim, it is the most comprehensive workforce report we have on CDNTs. It is expected that the full report will be published by the HSE in the coming weeks. The returning data indicates that the CDNT workforce increased by 17% when compared with the 2023 figure. This represents an additional 272 whole-time equivalent staff working across CDNTs. Within those onboarded, the largest growth was in health and social care professionals, accounting for 204 of the 272 whole-time equivalent staff.”
“We also need to make sure we have a pipeline of people coming through, including through apprenticeships and our third level institutions, whereby students who are training have an opportunity to go into CDNTs or a special school for the summer programme and have access to, and experience of, working with children with additional needs or adults who have disabilities. The number of training places in higher education institutes have increased. We have a growth in clinical placements in children's disability network teams. This serves to improve the recruitment of health and social care professionals into the CDNTs. The HSE career hub has more than 38,000 registered applicants. This gives CDNTs a substantial boost in advertising and engaging with targeted applicant pools.”
“No, the Minister is fine. I thank Deputies Ward and Ó Murchú for their questions. The question is on recruitment and retention of our staff, including therapists in our voluntary and community sectors. We are doing everything to make sure pay is fair. This is why there was a call to the WRC. The Minister, Deputy Foley, and I have brought a memo to Cabinet welcoming the talks at the WRC. From the Government's point of view, we want to make sure people are paid fairly and valued for the work they do. This is very clear. I welcome those constructive talks, which are the best way to find a resolution. The Government has given its commitment on this.”
“At the direction of my Department, an assistant national director for disabilities workforce has been appointed in the HSE to drive disability workforce initiatives, with particular emphasis on CDNTs. There will be a disability workforce strategy developed in 2025. We are looking at a range of measures, including making sure we have a pipeline of therapists coming from third level institutions. We have HSE figures for community, voluntary and social care workers, who are the backbone of our essential services.”
“I thank the Deputy, who has raised valid issues. We are supporting practice education in CDNTs. There is a student sponsorship programme. There is also an initiative whereby four years of salary are paid to new graduates over five years to support a gap year in the fifth year. We also have the development of apprenticeship programmes. At national level in response to the challenges, we have rolling recruitment campaigns with employers. There is talent searching in the Irish and international markets for staff. We also have workforce issues in CDNTs. These are being tackled through the progressing disability service roadmap to address current vacancies and expand recruitment throughout children's disability services.”
“This equates to an additional 384 whole-time equivalents associated with delivering existing levels of service and a further 133 whole-time equivalents staff to deliver new development measures. A dedicated disability workforce strategy will be developed in 2025 to meet growing service demands and address recruitment and retention challenges. Our ambition is evident in the disability action plan and is further underpinned in the progressing disabilities services roadmap, which sets out measures designed to attract and retain staff in the CDNTs. I can list these later.”
“From December 2019 to December 2024, the disabilities workforce in the HSE and section 38 providers expanded from 18,273 to 21,528 whole-time equivalent staff, an increase of more than 17%. In 2024 alone, the disabilities workforce increased by 963 whole-time equivalent employees, representing a 45% increase on growth levels achieved in 2023. However, demand for services continues to grow beyond present capacity and significant challenges remain, so we must continue to innovate and build on the momentum. Increasing the disability sector workforce is a key priority for the Government. The number of funded posts in disability services has increased to 21,644 whole-time equivalent staff in 2025.”
“The HSE and lead agencies are experiencing ongoing challenges recruiting to maximum capacity in the disability sector. These challenges are reflective of issues affecting the wider health and social care sector and are impacting the ability of the HSE and disability service providers to deliver on their vital work. Ensuring that the disability sector is fully resourced is a key priority of the Government. This priority has been reflected in our programme for Government. It is important to acknowledge the progress that has been made in recent years. Employment across the HSE and section 38 agencies is at record levels and growth achieved in 2024 has greatly surpassed prior and planned performance.”
“I thank Deputy Farrelly for his support in this regard. My door is open as well if there are any good ideas. We do not have the monopoly on solutions and my door is fully open in that regard. This is about ongoing recruitment. We have also been looking at what else we can do. There may be people working in other disciplines within the health sector who want to become therapists and could be upskilled. We must look at everything we can do. It is also about retention and pay. I get all of that. That is a key part of this as well. We must make sure there is a pipeline for the future given that disability is growing, not just here in Ireland but internationally, and we must also make sure we plan for the future so that we have the workforce coming in as well.”
“To optimise the recruitment into funded agencies, the HSE is facilitating direct access for funded agencies to existing HSE health and social care professional panels, which will shorten the recruitment process. In addition, our Department is working with the HSE to seek to introduce specific recruitment and retention incentives for therapists to work in CDNTs, along with the CDNT sponsorship programme, which has bursaries for fourth year and postgraduate students linked to acceptance of job offers. We are also expanding places in higher education facilities. We have an extra 150 therapists now going through the third level system.”
“In regard to early intervention, it is worth noting that in education, the access and inclusion model, AIM, is in place to support children with additional needs to access and meaningfully participate in early learning and childcare by providing universal supports to preschool settings generally and targeted supports based on the needs of the individual without requiring a diagnosis. The Deputy asked what we are doing regarding recruitment, both domestically and in the international field as well. We are trying to recruit. As he is aware, recruitment and retention are a challenge across all sectors, but in particular this sector, and a significant focus of the Government is filling the vacant posts within the 93 CDNTs.”
“The HSE has advised there was a net addition of 272 staff in CDNTs in 2024, which is a 17% increase compared with 2023. Funding has been made available in 2025 for children's services to build on these existing recruitment initiatives, with funding focusing on various positions across the CDNTs, including 20 senior therapist posts, 20 staff grade posts, 20 health and social care assistant posts and 15 clinical trainee posts. Under the new programme for Government, we will work to increase staff, train more therapists and enable targeted supports for CDNTs. Through these concerted efforts, we will be able to have a more robust workforce in the future to meet the growing demand from families and children.”
“As we know, the demand for CDNT services is growing every year and the progressing disabilities services, PDS, roadmap 2023-2026, which was launched by the HSE in October 2023, focuses on the ongoing development of CDNT services to meet current and growing demand. The PDS model is a needs-led model of service, where a child does not require a diagnosis to access services. CDNTs provide a multidisciplinary assessment of individuals' needs and strengths. Currently, 42,000 children are receiving services through the CDNTs. We know the delivery of services to children is inherently linked to the staffing levels in the CDNTs and their capacity to deliver these services. The Government has provided funding for additional posts to enhance the capacity of CDNTs in recent years.”
“I thank the Deputy for his question. The Government is committed to providing early intervention services to children with disabilities and their families as referenced in the programme for Government. A total of €3.2 billion has been allocated for disability services in budget 2025. This is an 11.6% increase on 2024 and represents an overall increase since 2020 of €1.2 billion. This increase will support the roll-out of the roadmap for service improvement for disabilities, including services for children and young people, through the provision of key roles and trainee placements for children's disability network teams.”
“I will certainly follow up with the HSE on that issue. What we want to do here is ensure that children and others with disabilities, including adults, are getting the therapies and services they need and require. That is my focus, that of the Minister, Deputy Foley, and of the Government. I refer to ensuring that we have the services and therapies required, be they occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, physiotherapists or whatever therapies it might be, to ensure we are addressing the needs of our young people and people with disabilities right across the country. My door is open and I welcome the Deputy's feedback. I want to try to respond and we all need to work on this area together. The Deputy has my commitment on that.”
“The roll-out of the regional assessment hubs sees the provision of personnel dedicated to the delivery of assessments of needs while preserving the time of other clinical staff for therapy interventions for children and their families. I absolutely accept, therefore, that this matter is about therapies as well and this is another body of work we are doing in the Department with the HSE to ensure we are recruiting and retaining therapists.”
“The Deputy is entirely correct about the stress, frustration, worry and anger of parents out there, and I absolutely acknowledge this point. They want access to therapies for their children. In many cases, they also want a diagnosis. There is a combination of reasons why people look for assessments of need. I absolutely accept that. The administrative hubs are in CHOs 1, 4, 5, 7 and 8. Established assessment hubs are also in CHOs 3, 6 and 9. The AON administration hubs will aim to provide a single point for receipt of AON applications and allocation to assessment officers to ensure a spread of demand of assessment officers across all available resources.”
“This initiative will continue in 2025 with €10 million in funding allocated to deliver some 2,850 assessments of needs and allow for additional capacity in the assessment teams in the form of assessment and liaison officers. In 2023, on foot of a direct request from the Minister of State with responsibility for disability, the HSE also developed AON administrative hubs in community healthcare areas. I will leave it there for the moment.”
“Work is ongoing by the HSE to increase the capacity of CDNTs to deliver therapy interventions to children and produce assessments of need. It is notable that the HSE reports a 30% increase in the number of AONs completed in 2024 compared with 2023. This has been achieved by a number of measures, including the waiting list initiative agreed by the Government last May. It targets those families waiting the longest for assessments of needs, with funding provided for the procurement of assessments from approved private providers. The HSE advises that more than 2,400 assessments of needs were commissioned from private providers over seven months in 2024.”
“The Government recognises that waiting lists for assessments of need are far too long and have a significant impact on the needs of children and their families. It should be noted that children who require services from a children's disability network team, CDNT, do not require a diagnosis or a statutory assessment of need, AON. However, it is a fact that demand for AONs has increased significantly in recent years, which is a reflection of both the increase in population and of families exploring all options for accessing services for their children. The HSE advises that in 2024 it received 10,690 AON applications, which is more than double the 4,700 applications received in 2020. The most recent data from the HSE shows that 14,221 AONs were overdue for completion at the end of December 2024.”
“I fully appreciate that more is needed and I will work with colleagues during the Estimates process to secure funding to provide the services we need. I have listened carefully today to the contributions of Members and I will take them away for consideration. There is no monopoly on good ideas. I am fully committed to listening and taking advice from any quarter, whether it is colleagues across Leinster House, advocacy groups, DPOs, families, individuals with lived experience or experts in the field. It is only by understanding the needs of people with disabilities that we can deliver the step change in disability services as per the commitment in the programme for Government that this sector needs.”
“While acknowledging the independence of local authorities as autonomous legal entities and therefore the challenges inherent in co-ordination across jurisdictions, the national disability strategy will examine opportunities to enhance co-ordination and to showcase examples of best practice to advance the implementation of the UNCRPD at local level. I assure Members that we will progress the action plan for disability services. We have set ambitious targets in the plan to provide for unmet need and demographic change. This ambition is important to generate commitment to the vision we have for disability services in Ireland. To date, the Government has supported the plan with approximately €113 million in new development funding - €74 million in 2024 and €39 million in 2025 - which has led to service expansion.”
“Advocacy groups have been extensively involved in the development of the strategy and officials from a range of Departments and stakeholders, including disabled people's organisations, DPOs, met in my Department last week to discuss the next steps. In working across government, including with colleagues in the Departments of An Taoiseach and Housing, Local Government and Heritage, to develop our commitments on the development of the national disability strategy, the role of local authority decision-making has emerged as a consistent theme. As my Department leads on the finalisation phase of development, it will be critical that local government is involved in the development of monitoring and implementing the actions.”
“The Government will also facilitate the continuation of the assessment of need waiting list initiative, enabling the procurement of private assessments for long-waiting families, with €10 million in funding allocated for 2025 to deliver 2,850 assessments of needs. Among the most important pieces of work under way is the development of the national disability strategy. The development of this strategy is at a very advanced stage, with publication expected in the coming months. The next national disability strategy will operate as a framework for the co-ordination of disability policy right across government, ensuring a whole-of-government approach to the advancement of the UNCRPD and collaboration on cross-cutting issues.”
“The recruitment and retention of staff is a challenge across the sector overall and a significant priority for the Government continues to be filling vacancies within the 93 CDNTs. Clear progress is being made in this regard, with the workforce having increased by 17% between 2023 and 2024. This represents significant growth of an additional 372 whole-time-equivalent staff working across the CDNTs. We are building on this progress. In budget 2025, more than €2.8 million in new development measure funding was secured to provide for additional whole-time equivalents in the teams. This includes 40 health and social care professionals, 20 health and social care professional assistants and 15 clinical psychology trainee placements.”
“In July 2024, the Government approved the prioritisation of funding to support the expansion of training places in priority healthcare areas, including speech and language therapy, occupational therapy and physiotherapy. Increasing the number of graduate therapists year-on-year will be key to meeting the demands of the disability sector and we will engage with the relevant Departments to support this work in 2025. Additionally, encouraging students to undertake placements in disability services is vital to increasing the disabilities workforce. This will expose more students to the challenging, impactful and rewarding nature of work in the disability services sector and encourage them to take up full-time positions upon graduation.”
“We must invest more in services, personal assistants, home support hours and other supports to assist people to continue living independently in their own homes. Our capital spending must increase and, crucially, we must provide more therapists and access to services. The programme for Government commits to doubling the number of college places for speech and language therapists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, dieticians, psychologists and social workers. An additional 150 places were provided last September as a first step in this process. These professionals are highly sought after nationally and internationally, with an array of career opportunities available to them.”
“My Department funds, via the HSE, specialist, community-based disability services, which are designed for the 60,000 people with a significant intellectual disability, autism or a complex physical disability. These services include multidisciplinary therapies for children or adults, adult day services, personal assistants, home support, respite and residential services. Some €3.2 billion has been allocated for HSE disability services in budget 2025. This is up 11.5% compared to 2024 and represents an increase of €333 million, the largest ever increase in the disability services budget. While the overall budget has increased by €1.2 billion since 2020, we appreciate that much more is needed.”
“This will ensure that the voices of disabled people will be across every Government decision. We are both committed to delivering change in tandem with colleagues across other Departments. It is important to note that the Cabinet committee on disability will be retained by this Government. A new disability unit will be established in the Department of the Taoiseach and both these actions will form the basis of a whole-of-government step change in its approach to service improvement and delivery. By putting disability at the centre of Government, we will expand and reform services to maximise people's independence and help to support disabled people. Census 2022 told us that 22% of the population or approximately 1.1 million people, have a disability. Most are supported via mainstream health and social care services.”
“I want to look at expanding the role of access officers in the public sector to ensure services such as libraries are accessible and people with disabilities are not prevented from attending and enjoying concerts and festivals. I wish to create a mechanism to allow public bodies to share best practices and I want to help people with disabilities to get into employment. My Government colleagues and I are absolutely committed to ensuring that each Department and the local authority sector work together to address the various barriers that prevent people with disabilities from fully engaging in society. A demonstration of this commitment is the fact that I as the Minister of State with special responsibility for disability sit at the Cabinet table, where I join my colleague the Minister, Deputy Norma Foley.”
“Only by tapping into the lived experience of people with disabilities will we understand what is happening on the ground, which will help us to deliver the reforms needed to improve services and deliver on our ambition. I want to deliver change that will have a real impact, as well as helping to oversee reform in this sector. For example, we must ensure that a person using a wheelchair who uses public transport can travel seamlessly from their home to a bus stop or a train station. I have asked my officials to develop a plan to audit our public spaces to ensure people are not inhibited from travelling because of cluttered streets and an inability to cross the road safely. That will help to guide investment decisions.”
“I thank Members for their contributions on what is a very important topic. The Government is absolutely committed to ensuring that people with disabilities can live full lives with the same rights and access to services, education, transport, sport, culture, careers and means to live independently as all other citizens enjoy. Since being appointed the Minister of State with special responsibility for disability last month, I have made it a priority to visit services, meet people with disabilities and sit down with advocacy groups to hear their views on what is working well and what needs to be improved. There are wonderful examples of services that help to transform lives. There are also examples of services that need additional support and bolstering. There is no shortage of good ideas concerning what can and must be done.”