Ms Michelle Murphy:

Social Justice Ireland has been on the record as supporting a cost of disability payment for a long number of years. We certainly welcome the publication of the Indecon report which was long overdue. There is a vast amount of detail in that report on the different types of disability and the different types of costs involved. At a very minimum we have costed and advocated for a cost of disability payment to support those people with a disability with the additional costs of living that they face on a daily basis.

A report on a strategy for housing for disabled people was published two weeks ago and we strongly urge that the recommendations in that report be implemented, particularly in the context of adaptation grants and the suitability of new builds. It is important that new buildings are built in such a way as to be adaptable over time, both to provide for people who have a disability now as well as people who may acquire a disability into the future.

We have a very low employment rate for people with disabilities compared with other European countries. We have to look at how we support people with disabilities into employment and how we allow them to access certain schemes to which they do not have access at the moment. I refer to schemes like Tús or community employment, which should be open to people with a disability to help them to enter the labour market. The tapering issue that was highlighted earlier is crucial in this regard. It is essential that any additional supports that people with disabilities have are not lost overnight when they enter the labour market. There must be a tapering and a consideration of how the supports that individuals have interact with their income from employment.