Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

If the Minister establishes a tiered system based on capacity to work, that will be fine. When it is introduced, she can have the bottom tier, which comprises the most supposedly capable of working, equivalent to the current rates of payment. There is nothing to stop a Minister in a future Government, or another Government, from dropping that because the current Minister has established the principle that we do not just accept that people are not able to work, they are disabled, have an entitlement to a payment and the State should support them. Instead, however, we are discriminating among them based on some company or State agency deciding how much capacity that they have to work. We may start out with the bottom payment equivalent to the current payment but there is nothing there to retain that in the future. It is, potentially, divide and rule of people on disability payments.

Those on disability payments are very scared of this. One woman who contacted me said that the assessment process was dehumanising and soul-destroying, particularly the idea of proving that a person and their children are "disabled enough" to get the support needed. I do not understand that as, if the Minister says that she wants to increase the payment, let us just recognise the enormous cost of disability and increase payments across the board.

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