Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for her reply. Employers are looking to this scheme to see how they can support people with disabilities. Has the Department considered people with disabilities who are returning to the workforce? I welcome the Minister's recent initiative on increasing the money that people can earn from work. Each week, our committee examines the available supports that encourage people with disabilities who want to return to the workforce for its therapeutic value and the sense of self-worth it provides as much as for anything else. Has the Department a view on how successful those supports are and, in light of its therapeutic value, mental health value and sense of self-worth, how we can get people back to work, even if only on a part-time basis, without their secondary benefits being stopped?

That may be outside the Minister's Department but she might comment on it.

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