Ms Fleachta Phelan:

I will make a couple of final points. The Cathaoirleach mentioned education and training. One of our members, AHEAD, pointed out to us the disadvantage that disabled students can sometimes experience around access to travel for international study and residency requirements around disability allowance. They get knocked off disability allowance if they move somewhere to do a semester abroad. There are many experiences around that. It is not specifically about means-testing but it is relevant.

Part of the reason the standard ask for so long has been the level of disability payment is that at present we have a disability allowance that is the same amount as jobseeker's allowance. We provide the same amount, even though we know and have the evidence base to show all the extra costs that are there. The fairest thing, until we can build the better system that Deputy Ó Cuív is helping us tease through, is to start to acknowledge that through a flat rate.

I will also mention the disability support grant. One of the things that has been built in over the past couple of years as part of the cost-of-living measures is the disability support grant. In the first year it came in, there was an acknowledgement in the Minister for Finance's speech of the extra costs of disability. The grant is nowhere near adequate but it is a good idea and it is a start. We have called for it to be continued but we saw a reduction in it last year, which made no evidential sense. It was reduced from €500 to €400, even though, as we indicated, the costs of disability have gone up.

The final piece, and the committee knows this, is there a very strong public and political mandate to address this issue. The Citizens' Assembly on Gender Equality made very strong recommendations around how we should move to a system that delivers an adequate standard of living for all, and that people are willing to pay extra taxes, if needed, to fund it. The committee and numerous other Oireachtas committees have all endorsed this. It would be great to see more progress because it is clear that what people want is a better system that delivers dignified living for everybody, including those who are disabled or who are caring.