Tom Clonan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. My Commencement matter relates to the back-to-work enterprise allowance, which has been dramatically reduced for persons with disabilities or disabled citizens. I wish to put a human face on this. The text of my Commencement matter refers to supports for people with a disability establishing businesses.This matter is drawn from one of hundreds of representations I received since my election from people in the disabled community. It comes from a man called Donal Coade who was a general manager for SuperValu and Tesco for 25 years. Let us imagine what that environment was like, with fast-moving consumer goods and human resources management. In 2011, Donal was diagnosed with a potentially fatal brain tumour. He had a craniotomy, which is when part of the skull is removed surgically. He had a titanium mesh inserted following the removal of the tumour. It is such a struggle to survive in those circumstances, because life goes on when people have a disability or when they suddenly have an acquired brain injury. People still have to pay the mortgage. They still have to squander whatever meagre resources they have on groceries and feed the kids. Life does not stop; it continues.

Unfortunately for Donal, the titanium mesh did not take well and he had some scarring on the brain that caused repeated seizures. The mesh was duly removed and for a period of years he had no skull, just a covering of skin, and he had to live and cope with that. The seizures continued and he had up to seven per week. Eventually, a solution was achieved through the insertion of a vagus nerve stimulator, VNS. I am telling this story to explain the challenges, obstacles and thresholds people with disabilities must survive and endure just to make it from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day. The VNS is inserted into the chest cavity, connected to the heart and then through the voice box connects to the brain itself. The vagus nerve is one of the largest nerves in the body. It goes from the brain right down into the gut. With a magnet on one of Donal's wrists they managed, after a number of years of tuning the device, to get rid of the seizures.

Then Covid hit in 2020. What did Donal do, as person confronting considerable challenges? He has hemiplegia and so is unable to use one side of his body because of these complications, but he decided to set up a hands-free sanitiser dispensing business. It is extremely successful. He used his experience of disability and so-called impairment to devise a device that can be used throughout Covid. It is robust, self-servicing and self-contained. The business is successful. He became eligible for the back to work enterprise allowance but his disability allowance of €208 per week was taken away from him. According to the Cost of Disability in Ireland report, that figure is not even sufficient to meet the extra costs per household incurred simply by having a disability. The back to work enterprise allowance is reduced by 50% after one year and 75% after two years so unfortunately Donal now finds himself in a situation where, as he cannot write and must employ somebody to scribe his business communications, he has to survive on €156 a week. The purpose of this matter is to ask the Minister of State to consider urging the Department of Social Protection not to put obstacles in the paths who have disabilities, or disabled citizens. They are exemplars for what our citizens should be when it comes to ingenuity, endurance and resilience and we should support them every step of the way. We are not talking about huge sums here.