Disability consultation at Aviva
Senator Clonan objected to a Department of Social Protection consultation on disability-related costs and questioned why disabled people and carers should have to attend such a process.
I raise the issue of the public consultation tomorrow being organised by the Department of Social Protection in the Aviva Stadium. I do not know why it would imagine that people in our community of disabled citizens and carers would feel the need for this consultation. The 2021 Indecon survey on the extra cost of disability, which was commissioned by the Department of Social Protection, found that the extra cost of disability ranged between €8,700 and €12,300 per annum. When inflation is factored in, the extra cost of having a disability is between €10,776 and €15,221 per annum, before people pay their rent or buy a sliced pan or a pair of trousers. That is the extra cost of having a disability. We know this, yet the Government has not fulfilled the promises it set out prior to the election to make this a non-means-tested payment.
The disability allowance, at the moment, comes to a total of €12,400 per annum, so even the disability allowance itself does not meet the extra cost of disability. What is happening in the Aviva Stadium tomorrow is that non-funded disabled persons' organisations have not been invited to that forum. It is a PR stunt and a photo opportunity with members of my community - people like my son and wheelchair users who go there in utmost good faith, with the highest of motivation, and end up being used as props for press conferences, PR and spin.
The Government already knows only too well what the cost of disability is, so there must be no more roadshows, lip service and this kind of performative PR and spin, which I imagine costs the taxpayer a great deal of money. Will the Government actually do something and make disability allowance a non-means-tested payment to take tens of thousands of families out of enduring poverty as a consequence of the cost of having a disability in Ireland?
