Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome that we now realise from our meetings that the Green Paper was not going to work. However, the Commission on the Status of People with Disabilities in 1996 recommended there should be a gradual payment to meet additional everyday costs associated with disabilities. This has come up with me recently too. There is no overall payment to cover the cost of disability in Ireland. Additional costs like equipment and disability aids, transport and communication, medical care, personal care, and other costs incurred by a person with a severe disability are estimated at approximately €5,000 more per year than costs faced by an unemployed person without a disability. There are people with a disability and they are on the poverty line. I know the Minister realises that, but we need to make sure people with disabilities get help with these payments. We need to have a payment that is working for them, and at the moment it is not.

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