Eileen Flynn (Independent)
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I will start with a positive, in that I very much welcome the review of the carer's grant. That is very important, especially for young carers.

I have noticed the language used in the room today has not been nice. We are referring to people with disability and disabled people as "them" an awful lot and using terms like "We are helping them.". I find that language inappropriate for people who are disabled and have disabilities. I wish to put that on the record. People do not need help. People need support to be able to empower and help themselves. Financial supports give disabled people tools and opportunities to be able to go about their daily lives, in the context of their basic needs.

Yesterday, I was speaking to a person around language coming in to this committee, and not wanting to offend or insult anybody. I did not know this until I had that conversation with her. She said it is society that disables people. I could not believe that I, who has been in this line of work for more than ten years, had not put that into my own sense of things. When she said it to me, it made so much sense. We are the problem. It is not the people with the disability or those who are disabled who are the problem. We are the problem as a society and as a system. As Deputy Cairns said, the system is not working and we have to look at that.

In 2022, the rate of poverty and social exclusion was 36.9% for disabled people and just 13.2% for non-disabled people. We are talking about the roadmap of social inclusion. These targets are not very ambitious. In fact, the indication is that the rate of poverty for disabled people has increased since 2020 because of the raising of rents, the impact of the pandemic, as well as fuel and food costs. The cost of living has gone up so much. It affects elderly people as well. Once they are over 66 years, are they entitled to disability benefits? There is a rate of just over €200 a week for people who have a disability. Deputy Cairns touched on this. I continue to help people with the application forms. If people have a severe intellectual disability, what supports are available to them to fill out those forms? I understand there are local community development organisations that are good on the ground and work with people who have disabilities to help them fill out these application forms. I want to know how those groups are supported in order to support people with disabilities when filling out those forms?

The Minister said that there are more than 6,000 people employed by the Department of Social Protection. For the record, how many of those people have identified as having a disability or as being disabled? I refer to the motto "Nothing about us without us". As a Traveller woman, I know the importance of that and of listening to people who have disabilities and are disabled. We need to be very careful with our language going forward, such as saying that we are helping them or have got them bus passes. We need to look at our language and think before we speak.