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

If the Government is serious about consultation and listening to people, it would, in fact, have listened to people and it would be withdrawing this Green Paper. "Nothing about us without us" is the slogan of the disability rights movement. Let us listen to what people with disabilities are saying. They are saying the proposed work capacity assessments are dehumanising and degrading, will objectify disabled people and will place blame on them for seeking welfare benefits. They say the Green Paper constitutes degrading and humiliating treatment under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and breaches disabled people's human rights. They say it will set disabled people against each other by discriminating between those seen as deserving of full benefits rights and those not deemed so deserving. They say the proposed process is based on a value judgment and will place blame on disabled people for seeking welfare benefits. They say it sends out a message to the general public that disabled people are falsifying the nature and extent of their impairment or illness and this will set up public resentment towards those disabled people who claim welfare benefits. They point out that it will do nothing to tackle the discrimination, societal ableism, oppression and prejudice from employers that are experienced by disabled people every day of their lives.

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