Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)

That is a programme for Government commitment. As I said, we are looking at the best way to implement it and we will be working with people with disabilities and their advocates to assess it.

I have looked at the ESRI report. As the Deputy said, it estimates that the average cost of a disability ranges from €25,376 to €28,860 depending on the severity. That is much higher than other reports. We are trying to work with the ESRI to understand how it reached that figure. The most important people in this conversation are those with disabilities and their advocates. I want to engage with them in order that I can understand what will work best for them. I will see to it that this payment is implemented during the lifetime of the Government, and we will seek to ensure it is adequate.

We are continuing our other work in this space. I am focused on assisting people with disabilities who want to get back into employment and on assisting employers to support their employees with disabilities. We are looking at wage subsidies and income supports as well.

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