I thank the Cathaoirleach. I am taking time at the end because I gave up my time earlier to make sure that we got every Member in.

Members appreciate a detailed response rather than cutting the debate short.

I thank the Cathaoirleach. I appreciate that.

Many of those new roles are already filled at this stage. They are going to be helpful to make sure that we are moving from a situation of dealing with crisis cases. Up until now, the funding has only been in place to be able to provide for crisis cases. What we want to do is be able to deliver on a planned basis. For the first time now this year, we have funding in the budget for planned residential places. It is not enough and is a small amount compared with where we need to get to, but that funding is there. We now need to prove that we can fill it, make it work and that this delivers. That gives us the opportunity to ask for additional funding in next year's budget, so we can grow it year on year. We want to move from a situation of crisis to a situation of planned responses because that is the fair and right thing to do.

One of the Senators mentioned Donegal. I was in Letterkenny on Friday. I met the access officer there who informed me that 30% of all local authority builds were accessible accommodation. That is welcome. I hope other local authorities take that lead. All Senators have great relationships with councillors. I ask them to encourage councillors when it comes to the county development plans-----

The Minister of State was a councillor herself.

-----to get those changes into county development plans. That would be really helpful. I acknowledge the good work that is happening there. That kind of forward planning will help the situation that Senator Nelson Murray spoke about where we are talking about retrospectively upgrading homes from an accessibility perspective and housing adaptation grants. That will get us into a situation where we are more futureproofing homes. That is really positive.

I thank Senator Nelson Murray for her feedback in relation to the VAT. Someone - possibly the same Senator - said that to me last week as well. It is something that I have made inquiries on ahead of the budget. The thresholds and accessibility are something that I will continue to work on across Departments.

Respite has a role to play when it comes to supporting families where an individual may eventually end up in residential care. Respite is an intervention that can help. Senator Kennelly said that very clearly. I am glad to hear that there will be a senior leader visit at the respite centre. I hope that is a success. I thank Councillor Teddy O'Sullivan Casey that the Senator works with. His wife is a great advocate, too.

Senator Sarah O'Reilly spoke about Down's syndrome children. Actually, I cannot remember if it was children or young adults.

What was formerly Down Syndrome Centre North East. It was about children.

Speech and language therapy. The HSE now has an initiative called Glór, which is specifically for delivering speech and language therapy to children with Down's syndrome. It is a whole lifespan approach. For the first time ever, a number of organisations came together, including Down Syndrome Centre, Down Syndrome Ireland, Hub 21 and someone else who I am forgetting. There were four organisations that all came together with a funding proposal for the HSE because it is very clear that we needed to intervene to support people in that situation. I hope that is good news. The Senator also spoke about her particular group, which might benefit from funding. Our Department, together with Rethink Ireland, launched a funding call about two weeks ago. It is still open. The Senator can check the Department's social media on that. It is the community participation fund. The group may well be a candidate for that.

I thank Senator Martin Conway for sharing his lived experience. I thank Senator Cosgrove for sharing her experience as somebody who worked in this area. While it is difficult for me to intervene in any potential industrial relations matters, I certainly would be open to hearing what the situation may be.

Again, I thank all the Senators who have participated in this debate. I particularly thank the Senators who have acknowledged the progress that we are making. That is important for the morale of people who day in and day out are delivering so much hard work in the HSE, the Department and section 38 and section 39 organisations, as well as our advocates. Their voices are being heard, they are being listened to and they are delivering change. We have got to keep going, we have to stay motivated, we have to do this together. We are asking for this to be done on a cross-departmental basis. I would like it to be done a cross-party basis, too, so that where we have good ideas, we come together, share them, drive and work together because we all have the same ambition here, that is, to improve the lives of people with disabilities. That is what it boils down to. We all know them. They are in our families and communities. We want to have a positive impact on their lives. That is what my team and I, and more importantly, my officials and the officials that I work with in the HSE do every day in work. I thank them for their support and hard work.

I apologise, as I should have mentioned this when I spoke about the Before We Die campaign. The Taoiseach has convened a Cabinet committee on disability meeting for Monday. Two of the topics that will be the focus of that meeting will be residential respite and housing. The Department of housing will be at the meeting. The Minister for housing and his officials will be at that meeting as well as ourselves. As I said in my opening remarks, while disability is absolutely a priority in our Department, it needs to be a priority in every single Department.

Before we move to the next item, I welcome guests of the Minister of State, Deputy Marian Harkin, to the Gallery. I welcome, with the Minister of State, Mr. Barry Adler, who is a former news editor with the New York Times, and his wife Pat. They are most welcome here to Seanad Éireann. I am sure people will be fascinated to learn all about the inner workings of the New York Times and what Pat and Barry think about the world of media today. I am sure Senators here will share their opinions; they will be down in the restaurant later.