Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As the spokesperson on disability for my party, I wish to raise several concerns around disabled people. There are persistently low levels of employment among people with disabilities, despite a widespread desire for work and career aspirations which are held by many and could be realised with the correct supports. This has resulted in appallingly high levels of poverty and enforced deprivation across households headed by a person with a disability.

Currently, the rate of poverty and social exclusion for people with disabilities in Ireland is one of the highest in the EU, at 38.1%. Equally, EU figures show Ireland to be the country with the lowest employment rate among people with disabilities, at 32.3%. The Government has committed to addressing the additional cost of disability. The Indecon report, which was commissioned by the Minister's Department, found that people with a disability face a higher daily cost of living, yet measures have not been introduced which would fundamentally address this issue within the social welfare system. The Government could have used the opportunity of the budget to begin to address the major shortcomings in provision for people with disabilities and family carers, but it fell short of this.

While I welcome many of the measures announced in the budget, several areas require further attention. I will speak on several of them. There is a need for a review of the means test for disability-related supports. Current means-testing requirements can be very rigid and limiting for many people with disabilities due to being based on entire household income. Income thresholds also limit many disabled people from taking up employment, as they lose essential entitlements if they earn too much. The one cited to me most often is the medical card. People do not want to lose their medical card and basic payment. This particularly applies to those who work on commission, because they find then that they lose their payment if they get any sort of work on commission at all. There is also a problem if there is a change in the financial circumstances of the partners of those receiving the blind pension or disability allowance. If the household income goes up, blind or disabled people either lose their entitlement or their rate of payment is cut. My argument is that these people will not cease to be blind or disabled simply because their partner changes jobs or their salary increases.

Several of my colleagues have raised concerns about the delay in processing emergency payments of different types. I wish to include in this the application for rent allowance for someone fleeing domestic violence circumstances. I was informed of the case of one woman seeking this rent allowance who was told it would take five weeks. Luckily enough, the new landlady was aware of her circumstances and was understanding. She said she could wait for the payment. Not all landlords or landladies are able or willing to wait for a payment. I wrote to the Minister about this issue. I hope this is a once-off situation that can be addressed and will not happen again. I say this because some people may end up going back to a domestic violence situation and this is intolerable.

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