Upcoming Consultation – Have Your Say

The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth is currently coordinating work across Government to develop Ireland’s next National Disability Strategy, which will be the successor to the National Disability Inclusion Strategy (2017-2021). The new strategy seeks to progress Irelands implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), which Ireland ratified in 2018.

As part of the development of the new strategy, a public consultation initiative will be run to ensure a wide range of persons are able to contribute. The consultation aims to get the views of Disabled Persons Representative Organisations, other disability stakeholders, families, parents, carers, and the general public on what they would like to see in a new strategy that would improve the lives of disabled people.

We are proposing that the strategy would be underpinned by the following principles.

• Stakeholder Involvement: It is crucial that stakeholders, particularly Disabled Persons Representative Organisations and people with lived experience of disability are centrally involved in the implementation process so that implementation can have the benefit of their experience, knowledge and voice.
• Mainstreaming: It is important that implementation is sustainable and embedded into mainstream decision-making structures of Departments and Agencies.
• Evidence: It is important that the implementation work programme is informed by data and research which sets out the situation, experience and needs of people with disabilities and which enables actions and outcomes to be assessed and measured.

Feedback from the National Disability Inclusion Strategy was that it had too many objectives and actions and some were not very impactful. The intention is that the new strategy will have a small number of high impact priority actions, in order to focus on ambitious efforts to address the most important issues.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to the consultation on a new National Disability Strategy. We have had a huge response throughout this process and are grateful for everyone who has taken the time to engage with us and the consultation process. Working with our colleagues in the National Disability Authority over recent months we hosted targeted focus group discussions both in person and online, conducted a national survey, held in person Town Hall consultation events and matching online consultations, and collected video and written submissions. None of that would be possible without the time so generously given to those processes, and the expertise and personal stories that were shared with us.

Working with the National Disability Authority, we are currently compiling and considering the consultation findings so we can deliver on our shared ambition for an effective National Disability Strategy that will deliver real progress for persons with disabilities in Ireland.

If you are interested in attending one of the online groups listed please click on the link below to register.

• Tuesday 21 November, 10.30am to 12pm Carers of people with disabilities [Completed]
• Wednesday 22 November, 2.30pm to 4pm Older people [Completed]
• Tuesday 28 November, 10.30am to 12pm Transport [Completed]
• Wednesday 29 November, 5pm-6.30pm Cost of Disability [Completed]
• Thursday 30 November, 2pm-3.30pm Employment & Training [Completed]
• Saturday 2 December, 11am-12.30pm Housing & Independent Living [Completed]
• Tuesday 5 December, 7pm-8.30pm Disability Health & Social Care Services and Supports [Completed]
• Wednesday 6 December, 2pm-3.30pm Education [Completed]
• Monday 11 December, 10.30am - 12pm Women & Disability [Completed]
• Wednesday 10 January, 7pm - 8.30pm - LGBTQI+ Individuals with Disabilities [Completed]

Disability organisations and in particular Disabled Persons Organisations (DPO) , are invited to make a written submission. The national questionnaire will be available for individuals but if you are not part of an organisation and would like to make a written submission you are welcome to do so.

Please answer the questions in the template document and submit to nda-events@nda.ie by Sunday, 11 February 2024.

• Members of the Deaf community or people who have difficulty in reading or writing may prefer to make a video submission to highlight the issues they think should be included in a new strategy. We ask that you keep your submission to less than three minutes. Please introduce yourself in the video and say if you are submitting as an individual or representing an organisation.
• Please send your video by WhatsApp to 085 879 7518 by Friday 02 February 2024.
• This is a government issued mobile phone that is encrypted. For videos in Irish Sign Language, we will have to share your video with an interpreter outside the NDA to translate your video. By submitting a video, you are consenting to this. As soon as your video is transcribed to English your video will be deleted. The interpreter will also delete the video. Transcription will be done as soon as possible but no longer than four weeks after receipt of the video.

Please note that the date in the ISL video states that closing date for submissions is 08 January 2024. This is now incorrect as the date has been extended to 02 February 2024

These discussions and interviews are targeting seldom heard disabled people such as people with communication difficulties for example due to intellectual disability or autism.

The National Survey in now live and will remain open until February 11, 2024. If you interested in informing how the National Disability Strategy could improve the lives of disabled people in Ireland, we invite you complete this short questionnaire that will take 10 to 15 minutes to complete.

Here is the Survey Monkey link to the survey or see options/links for different versions for different access needs below.

Alternative survey versions

• Irish language version: Survey Monkey

• Easy to Read version: Survey Monkey

• Screen reader version: Survey Monkey

• Irish Sign Language (ISL) version: Survey Monkey

If you would like to participate in a telephone version of this survey, please call 01-608 0406, leave a message and we will call you back.

If you would like to receive a paper version of the survey, or an Easy to Read version with pictures, please e-mail nda-events@nda.ie with your address

Free public in-person Town Hall events will be held in Galway and Cork to help inform the National Disability Strategy

Town Hall Details

Date: Monday, February 12 2024

Time: 11am to 3pm including lunch

Location: The Galmont Hotel & Spa Lough Atalia Road, Galway, H91 CYN3

Register here

Town Hall Details

Date: Saturday, February 17 2024

Time: 10.30am to 3pm including lunch

Location: Clayton Hotel Cork City, Lapp’s Quay, Cork T12 RD6E, Ireland

Register here