Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Cost of Disability in Ireland report was commissioned by the Minister for Social Protection and prepared by Indecon International Research Economists. It was published in December 2021. It provides important evidence of the additional costs that people with a disability face. The report has implications for many areas of public policy. A whole-of-government approach is required to develop appropriate responses and to ensure that everyday costs are reduced for people with disabilities and their families.

The report was considered by the steering group of the national disability inclusion strategy, NDIS, within 24 hours of its publication in late 2021, and onwards to the conclusion of that strategy in December 2022, in the context of monitoring actions under the NDIS. The NDIS has now ended and work is ongoing in my Department to co-ordinate the development of a successor to the national disability strategy. It is important to me that this strategy includes meaningful action to reduce day-to-day costs for people with disabilities in Ireland. The Cost of Disability in Ireland report will be an important contribution to the evidence base from which actions and commitments in the new strategy are developed across government throughout 2023.

With regard to actions being taken by the Government in the immediate future, this year the Department of Social Protection introduced a suite of measures as part of budget 2023 to mitigate the impacts of the rising cost of living for all people in Ireland, which will have assisted persons with disabilities also. In addition to those general measures, the following specific measures were advanced to address disability-specific costs: a €12 increase was applied to the maximum rate of weekly disability payments; the disablement benefit was disregarded in the means assessment for fuel allowance; the reasonable accommodation fund was increased by €1 million; the earnings disregard for disability allowance and the blind pension increased from €140 to €165; and the means assessment threshold for fuel allowance increased from €120 to €200.

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