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

As I said, Indecon is working on the report at the minute and I expect it to come to me shortly. We will have to look at the report and we will act on the recommendations in it. The priority and the focus of the Department of Social Protection is to ensure that there is an income safety net for people so that they do not fall below the income safety net. As I said to Deputy Lowry on the issue of the grant, the Department of Health and the HSE also have a significant role to play.

I know from my engagement with the Minister of State with responsibility for disability, Deputy Rabbitte, that she is fully committed to helping and supporting people and she is doing a great deal of work in her own Department to improve the outcomes and the conditions for people living with disabilities, and she is very passionate about that.

The Deputy mentioned opportunities for people to get back to work. We have the employability service that helps people with disabilities to get into the workforce and we will continue to support that. We need to focus on that to ensure that people have that opportunity to get into the workplace.

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