Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank all the witnesses for their opening statements and briefing notes, which were very much appreciated. Mr. Hession referred to scarce resources, but for people with long-term disabilities that they will have for the rest of their lives, where it is objectively clear that a diagnosis of a given illness or condition means they will have it for the rest of their lives, they are nonetheless obliged annually to fill out forms and almost prove their disability again and again. I have sat with people who have had to do this on behalf of a family member or assist them, and with individuals themselves, who feel the fact that has to be done is evidence of an approach where people are subject almost to an assumption of fraud, where the onus is on the individual to prove he or she is not fraudulent and really is disabled. They feel this is contemptible and disrespectful and that is their experience of it. How can the Department of Social Protection overcome that? How is it justified when a person has a disability that is not going to go away? How can we do better in that regard?

My next question is for the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. There are a lot of supports when it comes to low-level employment opportunities, but people with disabilities have the capacity and capability to come into jobs at any level. If anything, my experience on this committee has been that there are outstanding people who come in and show incredible capacity. What supports are there at a high level? I attended a recent women in business meeting held by our party with the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment and one individual raised this issue, whereby in the context of Enterprise Ireland and other agencies, there does not seem to be evidence of high-level support for disabled people.

The cost of disability report demonstrated that an individual with a disability will have a weekly additional cost of somewhere between €167 and €236. Where is that factored into the earnings disregard? People with disabilities should have much higher thresholds and higher inclusion to take account of the fact they have costs others do not have.