Cabinet Committees
Dail Éireann — 2025-11-12
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Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

I propose to take questions Nos. 18 to 36, inclusive, together.
The Cabinet committee on disability has been established to oversee the implementation of the programme for Government commitments in the area of disability, with specific focus on children's disability services as well as disability more generally under the Government's new National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People 2025-2030.
Under the programme for Government, we are committed to delivering a step change in disability services and to advancing the rights and improving the lives of people with disabilities. To deliver on this, I established the stand-alone Cabinet committee on disability. This committee has met five times to date, most recently on 16 October, and it is due to meet again on 27 November. To date, the committee has considered issues including the new national disability strategy, the provision of therapists in special schools, improving the delivery of services and reform of the assessment of need process.
Despite the committed efforts of so many working to provide services and significant increases in funding and resources in recent years, I acknowledge that we can and must do more and do better. I am determined that this will be a Government that moves forward with purpose in improving the level, scale and quality of support for disabled people and their families.
The Government's new National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People 2025-2030, published in September, is the framework for our whole-of-government approach to addressing disability and advancing the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. It represents our commitment and ambition that all disabled people in Ireland can live the life of their choosing and participate in their communities and our society to the fullest extent possible.
In budget 2026, we took initial steps to deliver on this commitment through record allocations for disabilities services and special education. Reflecting the importance of disability issues, I have established a dedicated disability unit in my Department.
An initial programme planned for the unit has been published, outlining how the unit will work to achieve this. The unit is already up and running, supporting the work of the Cabinet committee on disability and ensuring a truly all-of-government approach to disability.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-11-12/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-21T01:01:05+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-11-12