Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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There are the disability allowance, the invalidity pension and all the various schemes. How should we devise a new scheme or how do we underpin a scheme that will allow people to work, have their benefit and hold on to their secondary payments? A few people have mentioned the rural social scheme to me, which was devised approximately 20 years ago for low-income farmers and fishermen.

Under the terms of the statutory instrument under which it was set up, there was a large disregard for various incomes through environmental schemes and so forth. Recently, I completed a course on social farming in UCC, where we debated this matter at various points along the way. The witnesses mentioned labour activation and other employment matters, but there seems to be a great need for some underpinning of the secondary benefits to encourage more people with disabilities into therapeutic work, for want of a better phrase, or into employment. Have the witnesses given any thought to such a scheme? Someone on the rural social scheme can, for example, receive the half-rate carer's allowance and the scheme has a number of income disregards. Could the witnesses examine this matter and report back to us? From the evidence and experiences we are hearing, we are trying to determine whether something similar could work. Has Rehab or any of the other groups examined the models employed by Social Farming Ireland and Kerry Social Farming or engaged with those organisations in any way?

We will go around the houses and given everyone a chance to wrap up. We will start with Ms Hughes before moving on to our two online guests and finally the others, if that is okay.