Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As the Minister will be aware, a very large number of people will be affected by this. Some 225,000 people receive these payments, 150,000 on disability allowance and about 75,000 on the other payments.

If I were to think of a single phrase that I think concerns people - the specific phrase belongs to the approach that was taken in Britain - it would be "work capability assessment". I think the Minister's Department uses a different phrase, but the former phrase would send a chill down the back of the neck of anybody with disabilities who is familiar, or anyone at all who is familiar, with the regime that existed in Britain. It is an approach that led to people being classed as fit to work who were simply not or who were grievously ill and forced them into hardship. It is an approach that very much suggested that there were targets to be reached to try to reduce the number of people on disability allowance. It is vital we do not pursue any approach that involves that kind of assessment or forces people into unsuitable work, cuts them off and puts them into hardship, as happened in many instances in Britain.

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