Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Again, I agree with the Deputy. There are many men and women in positions similar to that of that young man. The interdepartmental "Make Work Pay" group was set up as part of our comprehensive employment strategy. It prepared a report with findings and recommendations, some of which deal with exactly the issue referred to by the Deputy, namely, the interaction between holding a medical card and its potential loss as a barrier to persons with a disability fulfilling their employment ambitions. This concern arises due to the way the current system operates because for persons on disability allowance to retain an automatic entitlement to the medical card, an earnings disregard is applied. This means they can only have a weekly earning of up to €120 per week. This is doing exactly what the Deputy said. There are people who can and want to work more, be promoted or go on to new and exciting job opportunities but they need to hang on to that medical card for very good reasons.

The good news is that the majority of people would still qualify for the medical card. However, we need to remove any ambiguity in that regard and that is what the new income disregard will endeavour to do.

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