CLARE LEADER FORUM are calling for the Green Paper on Disability Reform to be scrapped.
On Friday, Clare Leader Forum took to the streets of Ennis in protest of the Green Paper on Disability Reform. A day previous, four members, Dermot Hayes, Noel Kearney, Brian Hogan and Emma Mulqueen were outside Leinster House as disability groups from across the country protested outside the Houses of the Oireachtas.
Government have said the Green Paper is their response to a commitment to developing and consulting on a ‘strawman’ proposal on the restructuring of long-term disability payments under the Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2021-2025 Strategy
Published in late September, it plans to implement a three tier system to restructure the rates of pay administered to those living with a disability in Ireland. Those on tier one who are deemed to have the highest support needs and would receive the state pension rate of €265.30 per week. Those on tier two and tier three meanwhile would receive €242 and the current standard rate of disability allowance of €220 per week respectively.
Proposals of reforming income supports which include, Disability Allowance, Invalidity Pension, Blind Pension, Partial Capacity Benefit, and the Domiciliary Care Allowance are also included in the Green Paper.
Already activists have secured a win with the deadline for submissions to the Department of Social Protection pushed back from December 15th to March 15th.
Dermot Hayes of the Clare Leader Forum told The Clare Echo, “It was supposed to be dealt with and sorted out by December but they postponed it until March which is great, nonetheless we want the whole thing scrapped”.
He stated, “What the Government are proposing in this Green Paper, there’s five disability payments and they want to condense them into three, we want consultation and not these public events where there are meetings in three parts of the country which is not accessible to a lot of people with disabilities. We want serious consultation. They are encouraging people to go out to work from the age of 18 to 65, we are asking will the personal assistance be there if we need it”.
Corofin native Dermot outlined, It is a big document from the Government but had little consultation and it put a lot of nerves into people especially in the winter time, to get people out protesting and campaigning is difficult even in the summer”.
Support of Clare TDs, Violet-Anne Wynne (IND), Michael McNamara (IND) and Cathal Crowe (FF) plus Senator Timmy Dooley (FF) was acknowledged by Dermot. Cllr Clare Colleran Molloy (FF) has informed the group she plans to table a motion before the County Council “trying to dissuade the Government from putting this bill forward or turning it into a white paper”.
