Ms Michelle Murphy:

Regarding the cost of disability, obviously it is substantially more than €20. What we are trying to do here and have been trying to do for several years is to get that commitment within the system. That is the key. We costed it at just €20 arising from an Indecon report that is now three years old, which needs to be substantially updated. It is to get that commitment delivered within the system as a weekly payment, not an annual payment, and then we can build from there. We are concerned there were commitments in the previous programme for Government that were not delivered. We would really urge the Government to deliver on this commitment in this budget as a weekly payment.

We are very concerned that what was considered a cost-of-disability allowance - the one-off measure - was €200, which was completely inappropriate. At the very minimum, it needs to start at €20 per week and build from there.