Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the opportunity to be able to speak briefly. I had to run in and out of another committee meeting where a quorum was required. I apologise for that. I thank the Minister for taking the time to meet the committee today.

We have been very clear in all our deliberations that we need to have a cross-governmental approach. We cannot have a situation where the challenges and issues that impact on people with disabilities are siloed into one particular area. In the past year and a half, having had the opportunity to engage with so many people about their lived experience with disabilities, it has been very clear that we need to have this type of engagement with Ministers in every area of Cabinet. We appreciate the Minister giving her time. I look forward to seeing her later in Kildare. We are all under pressure. The Minister will get to see some of the very positive projects in south Kildare.

The Minister spoke about empowering people with disabilities and rightly so. This has to be the number one priority for all of us on the committee and across the Government. It is about giving everybody the opportunity to live in society with dignity and to be able to contribute to society and live independently. As the Minister rightly stated, it also includes being able to secure employment. Sadly, we do not have a good record when it comes to people with disabilities accessing employment. It is good to see it improving. I know Mr. Des Henry very well and I applaud the work he does. He has been involved in WALK and setting up the internship programme in Leinster House. There will be a briefing on this later. Ours is the first parliament to establish such a programme. Three quarters of those involved in the first programme were able to get permanent jobs afterwords, including two in Leinster House. It was worth doing. We need to do more.

I appreciate that the Minister had the opportunity earlier to address the areas that are of concern to me. These include the Indecon report that came from the Department on the cost of disability. We come to the dichotomy between equality and equity. Equality does not mean equity. We know that the cost of disability ranges from €10,000 per annum to €12,000 per annum. It is about how we have an equal playing field. People start with this as a minus in terms of trying to make ends meet, which is difficult for everybody during these times. We have to look at ways we can ensure this is taken into account in the Department and across the realm. Does the solution lie in introducing a cost of disability payment in order to allow people living with disability to achieve the same standard of living as those who do not have disabilities? This would remove a barrier in terms of financial independence.

Another area of concern is the means testing of disability payments. It undermines disabled people's choice and control over their own lives and restricts their ability to choose where and with whom to live as support is tied to that person. At a previous meeting I mentioned a young lady I know who lives with a disability. She is in a wheelchair. Her husband, by virtue of his work, is abroad quite a bit. She often brings her children to school. She is in a wheelchair and they walk beside her. I was shocked when she contacted me, having already known her, to find she did not get any disability payment whatsoever. She has to ask her husband for money for period products. She has no access to any individual payment for herself. I have major concerns about this.

I appreciate that there is not an infinite purse and that we cannot do everything we would like to do. The Minister spoke about supports for those who have more of a need, and I accept this. For those who have an invisible disability, it is very difficult for them to access the supports they need because their disability is not perceived as being serious enough. Sometimes a small intervention to help them goes a long way . Those are the questions and comments I wish to put to the Minister.