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

The Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, is heading a cross-departmental committee and leading the whole-of-government response through the disability inclusion strategy steering group, which she starts. In fairness to her, she is pushing that work on. She is a strong advocate and is passionate about the issue of disability. My Department is looking at the recommendations relating to the cost of disability payment. As I said earlier, we will develop a strawman proposal on that. I do not want to do so without consulting stakeholders. I was not found wanting in this year's budget when it came to supporting people with disabilities. I will not tell the Deputy what is in the next budget, but she can be assured that I will look at issues across the board, particularly with regard to people with disabilities. That is part of the budget negotiations. I was not found wanting in this year's budget, where I changed a number of things. I changed Catherine's Law so that people who had secured a scholarship could go on to do their master's degree. I am conscious of the challenges facing people with disabilities, but I am also conscious that there are profound, moderate and mild disabilities. I want to provide the most supports to those who need them most, since others do not need as much.

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