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

To be clear, there is no question of anybody having his or her payment decreased. My objective here is actually to increase payments, not decrease them. This is a difficult and very sensitive area, and I reassure people that there is no intention to cut anybody's payment or to cut people off payments. That is not the intention. What I am doing is putting out very clearly in the Green Paper an opportunity to have an honest and frank discussion. I am happy to engage with the stakeholders. I have already had two meetings with them. There will be further meetings across the country. I am happy to take people's views on board. Then, when we have collated all that information, we can sit down and look at it. I have done this before with other consultations. It has worked and we have changed things. I honestly have an open mind here. I could put my head in the sand and do nothing about this - that would be the easy thing to do - but I will not do that. I want to try to make a difference and improve the situation for people with disabilities.

See this speech in context