Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Indecon report will look at all the issues that have been raised and I hope and expect that it will address them. My Department is doing much to help people with disabilities. This year alone, we spent more than €4.7 billion across various payments, such as disability allowance, invalidity pension, carer's allowance, partial capacity benefit and blind pension, and that is to name but a few. We are supporting more and more people through these schemes. In 2010, there were 101,000 people on disability allowance. Today, there are almost 147,000 people. That is nearly a 50% increase in the number of people receiving disability allowance since 2010. We expect to spend €1.8 billion on disability allowance this year alone. That will give the Deputy some idea of the Government's commitment to support people with disabilities. It is a similar story when one looks at the number of people receiving carer's allowance. In 2010, 50,000 people were receiving it and now 84,000 people receive it.

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