Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

That would be really important because it would help people to recover and get back into the workforce or education or whatever it is. Ms Bird spoke about a disability passport. That would be a very good idea. We hear from students in primary schools who say the supports they get there follow them into secondary school but after that, they do not. Third level colleges and institutions are usually fairly good at providing supports as well, as Ms Bird said. Then, however, people have to go and look for something again if they go into the workforce or change workplace. They have to go looking for the supports again whereas the supports really should go with the person.

Professor Flynn and Mr. Abdalla mentioned the disability assessment system and accessibility across national borders. The WHO has a disability assessment schedule. I want to expand on that. We need to evaluate the whole way that social protection is allocated here. We need to re-evaluate it and ask what the purpose of social protection is. It is almost as if no matter what payment a person is receiving, there is a punishment element to it. If a person does not attend a meeting with the job coach or whoever, he or she could lose a payment or have a payment reduced. That is just for jobseekers; we are not even talking about disability.

Professor Bird spoke about having a payment that addresses the cost of disability before a person can go to work. People are almost disincentivised to go to work because of the possibility of losing that payment and the secondary benefits, of which the medical card is a huge one. The whole thing needs to be re-evaluated. That applies to carers as well. On that point, are there good examples in other countries of a system that works for people that could be replicated? There is no point in reinventing the wheel. It might be something that could be rolled out across Europe or whatever.