Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As the Minister has said, one of the proposals was to merge the disability allowance, blind pension and invalidity pension into a single payment called the personal support payment. While the Green Paper has been scrapped, and for good reason, there were proposals within which merited further analysis and I believe this is one. In our consultation with disabled individuals and DPOs, there was a cautious welcome from many for this proposal. The current system does not meet the needs of disabled people. It is cumbersome and stressful. A single payment that is easy for disabled people to access would be welcome. It is currently based completely on the medicalised model of disability, and people born with lifelong disabilities still have to be reassessed every couple of years, which is ridiculous. It is not as if their disabilities are going to magically disappear. It is stressful and it is a waste of people's time. Any proposals for a new singular system would need to be based on a social and rights-based model of disability as incorporated in the UNCRPD and should only be arrived at after real and meaningful consultation has taken place with the disability community. Co-production and co-design of a singular scheme are what would make this successful.

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