Disability Issues

13. Deputy Mark Wall asked the Minister for Social Protection if he plans to include a cost-of-disability payment given the high cost of disability faced by disabled people. [67648/26]

The Government very much recognises the additional costs that disabled people face in their daily lives and we are committed to improving outcomes for disabled people by introducing permanent measures. This is why, as part of the programme for Government, we have included a commitment to introduce a permanent annual cost-of-disability payment. To that end, the national human rights strategy for disabled people was developed with significant input from disability groups and advocates. It included a commitment to a strategic focus network summit on the cost of disability. A public consultation process on how a cost-of-disability payment can best be delivered was launched on 20 February and ran for six weeks. It received over 1,100 submissions and culminated with a summit at the Aviva Stadium on 13 May. That summit was attended by the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste, the Minister for children, the Minister of State with responsibility for disability, the Minister of State at the Department of Transport and me. Arising from the lived experiences shared at the summit, I presented to the delivery and monitoring committee, which is chaired by the Taoiseach, in the middle of July. That meeting as also attended by a number of colleagues and representatives. We will publish the presentation as soon as possible. It is clear that a whole-of-government approach is important in addressing costs. As well as income support, we have to improve delivery and access to key services. One of the themes of the day was that transport is a major challenge. With particular reference to the cost-of-disability payment, we are currently addressing that in the context of budget discussions. The consultation feedback is that disability groups predominantly want a cost-of-disability payment paid at a basic rate to all qualified recipients. There is a high demand for a graduated payment made as a supplement to some people based on the nature of disability and the costs arising. However, the main demand was that disabled people and their advocates would be involved in codesign of any detailed scheme, and we are working towards a model in that regard.

Nice try, Deputy. The budget negotiations are ongoing. It is very important, and I very much recognise that the estimates of costs that are there. The first payment will not address all of those. The key issue will be to introduce the permanent disability payment. It will grow, as many other social protection payments have done, but we will begin the work on how we deliver that payment through codesign, partnership and as far as we can with the disabled persons organisations. There are many differing views as to how the payment should be delivered. My first job is to get it introduced and start the process immediately in terms of delivery and how that works. We will revert to the groups and to the submissions as to how we can best do that in a shared way. In the context of the figures the Deputy mentioned, such as from the Indecon report, we will not be able to get that level in the first year of the payment but I am very aware of the cost. Like many other social protection payments, this payment will increase in the years to come once we have it introduced and the budget for it ring-fenced.

On the heating supplement, we had a very productive meeting with the Irish Cancer Society yesterday on how we could work with it. I am certainly happy to work with other groups in promoting the heating supplement. As the Deputy said, there is a low uptake. We will engage on that. Generally, we have not finalised our budget at all yet. I know I have the support of the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and the Minister of State, Deputy Canney, as the three leaders of the Government, in introducing this. We will be negotiating very hard over the course of the next ten days in the context of getting it introduced and set up as a permanent payment rather than one that is set from budget to budget and depends on whatever are the priorities of the day. The most important thing for me is to then get it delivered. There are many differing views. We received 1,000 submissions and there were many hundreds of different views as to how it should be delivered. That will be the discussion we will have with the various organisations. That codesign piece is very important.