Mr. Haydn Hammersley:

The question was about secondary benefits. In other European countries, it depends. A number of countries allow the retention of secondary benefits and in-cash benefits. Some research was conducted by the European Commission in 2023. Among the member states I see listed are countries such as Cyprus, Finland, Greece and Spain, which have a more flexible approach than, for example, Ireland in allowing people to retain the disability allowance and secondary benefits while in work. There are also countries that are stricter than Ireland where as soon as you earn your first euro, you lose all your cash benefits. As soon as you show that you are able to work, your eligibility for disability allowance disappears. In the three categories, Ireland would be more or less in the middle. At the European Disability Forum, we are always pushing for people to be able to retain all of these benefits while in work, given what Mr. Jacquinot has mentioned about the extra cost of living that comes from having a disability and the fact that disability allowance is mostly intended to be a compensation for these extra costs. That is a quick overview of where Ireland stands compared with the other EU member states and some of the different models that we see.