The Social Democrats today announced details of a multi-billion-euro disability plan that the party would implement in government.<\/p>\n
The policy was launched by Sin\u00e9ad Gibney, the Social Democrats general election candidate in Dublin Rathdown.<\/p>\n
The document sets out how the party would additionally spend an average of \u20ac1.1 billion per year, between 2026 and 2030, to introduce a weekly cost of disability payment of \u20ac30; the phased implementation of the Disability Capacity Review; and securing pay parity with HSE staff for Section 39 workers.<\/p>\n
Sin\u00e9ad Gibney said:<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a longtime human rights and equality advocate, I am deeply committed to seeing the type of policy change that has been denied to disabled people for decades by successive governments.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile it is welcome that the optional protocol of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has finally been ratified \u2013 and will come into legal effect the day after the general election \u2013 the long delay in getting to this point shows that disabled people were not a priority for the outgoing government.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last-minute ratification of the protocol means it will now fall to the next government to vindicate the rights of disabled people if their complaints are upheld under the UNCRPD mechanism.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor too long, disabled people have faced some of the greatest barriers to full participation in Irish society, from lack of employment opportunities to the absence of vital mobility schemes that were scrapped more than a decade ago but never replaced.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere needs to be massive investment in disability services and a shift to a rights-based approach. This means measures like making multi-annual funding the norm for the disability sector and introducing a weekly cost of disability payment.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuch a payment would make a difference to the lives of disabled people, who consistently have among the highest poverty rates of any group in Ireland \u2013 three times that of the general population \u2013 while more than two in five disabled people are experiencing deprivation at any one time.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn government, the Social Democrats would insist on a full Minister for Disability at the Cabinet table and ensure that additional annual funding is ringfenced for the proposals contained in the policy we are launching today.\u201d<\/p>\n