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

My plan is to publish the straw man proposal and then sit down with stakeholders to get their views on it. We want an open conversation. It worked well in the past when we sat down. The straw man proposal is just about putting out some ideas. We will take from it and add to it but we will have that conversation. I take the points raised by the Deputy.

There will always be a debate on targeted supports compared with universal supports. Universal supports sometimes mean taking resources away from those who need them most. We are doing a big piece of work on significant reforms to the disability payment as a follow-on from the cost of disability report. One of the key recommendations in the report related to targeting supports better. For example, everyone on disability allowance gets exactly the same flat-rate payment of €220, regardless of the level of disability. The cost of disability report recommends tiered payments such that, for example, a person with a profound disability who might never be able to work would get a higher payment than would be received by a person with a moderate or mild disability who could do some work. I will be publishing the straw man proposal. This will bring generational reforms into the disability payments.

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