Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

This is an out-of-touch Government and Deputy Varadkar has been an out-of-touch Taoiseach. Rarely was that seen more than in his interview on "The Six O'Clock Show", where he raised issues relating to care and disability and showed his Thatcherite colours. I suspect that was the moment the care referendum was lost. The Government, however, is about to repeat the mistake. Its Green Paper on disability reform, again aping the Tories, rather than dismantling barriers and forcing employers to make workplaces people with disability-friendly, points towards forcing disabled people into work under threat of loss of benefits. Will the Taoiseach not learn the lesson of the referendum campaign that the Government will rile the disability community in this country at its peril and scrap that Green Paper now?

See this speech in context