Martin Daly (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)

Questions to the Taoiseach on disability were cut short today because we were over time, so it is good to get this opportunity. One of the big challenges for adults living with disability is trying to escape the poverty trap. There is a cost of disability estimated at nearly €500 a week. If their disability in terms of disposable income in a family is factored in, it can be up to 92% of their disposable income. We know, therefore, disability is associated with poverty and less opportunity to become employed. Even if you become employed, that employment is probably on the lower scale of payment. It is the two sides of the same coin, that is, the poverty and offering opportunities to people living with disability to get adequate training and education. Are we committed to that? It is hugely important. It is important as a human right but also to the person who is living with disability and their family to offer them hope. It is also important to us as a State to do the right thing. I am interested in the Minister or Minister of State's reflections on that.