Paul Lawless (Mayo, Aontú)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

1413. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if endometriosis will be recognised as a disability. [12085/25]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Specific issues relating to endometriosis and associated policy lie outside of my Department’s remit and fall instead under the remit of the Department of Health.

In broad terms we do not define disability by way of reference to individualised impairments or medicalised diagnoses. The Disability Act 2005 instead interprets disability as meaning a “substantial restriction in the capacity of the person to carry on a profession, business or occupation in the State or to participate in social or cultural life in the State by reason of an enduring physical, sensory, mental health or intellectual disability”.

This definition takes a broadly functional approach to disability, recognising that an individual's specific circumstances, societal barriers, and medical history will all have an impact on the extent to which a person is or is not "disabled". This is in line with the social model approach to disability set out in the UNCRPD. It also provides a more flexible definition to practitioners where specialised health needs arise that is not tied to a prescriptive list of conditions - which runs the risk of inadvertently excluding people from recognition or supports.