Dr. Amy Hassett:

A really important aspect of this is looking at how we support people to stay in employment. At the moment, we have a situation whereby people are either employed or on disability or illness benefit. It does not feel like there is much middle ground. It is so difficult to get disability allowance. There was an article yesterday about the number of rejections of disability allowance, which is phenomenal. In many other countries in Europe, it is possible to work part time and have more flexible working arrangements. We need to look at how we support people to stay in employment and to work in more accessible ways in order that they do not need to fully transition to disability allowance. The key point is that in many European countries, it is possible to live well working three or four days per week. That is just not possible in Ireland, which is a terrible problem and a shame.