"Cost of Disability Report Must Be Published By Government"

Disability organisations have called on Government to Mark International Day of Persons with Disabilities.

Leading Disability and Mental Health Organisations have called on the Governmnet to publish its report on the Cost of Disability.

The cost has previously been put at over €200 per week for individual people with disabilities.

It looks in detail at all of the extra day-to-day costs faced by people with disabilities.  

An extensive survey, incorporating feedback from thousands of disabled people across Ireland, was completed by consultants, Indecon, in early 2021 and a report submitted to the Government.

Each Government Department has since examined the report and the organisations have been told that the report will be presented to Cabinet by Minister Heather Humphreys in due course.

However, three years after this research was first announced, the report remains unpublished, according to the leading organisations.

Disability Federation of Ireland CEO, John Dolan said: “Ireland has one of the worst rates of social exclusion for people with disabilities in the EU.

"The clear evidence is that the cost of having a disability in Ireland is very substantial,"he insisted.

"The Irish Government has never recognised this, despite this issue being well-documented over the past 25 years, since the Commission on the Status of People with Disabilities (1996) originally recommended the introduction of a Cost of Disability payment and research by Indecon in 2004 made the same recommendation.

"This delay has meant that the Budget for 2022 contained no specific cost of disability social welfare payment, and those people with disabilities who rely on the state for their income got the same €5 increase that everyone got, despite their substantial extra costs.

"Indeed, disability campaigners had been looking for a minimum of €20 per week in Budget 2022 to establish the principle of a Cost of Disability payment," he added.

The organisations say the most meaningful action the Government could take on International Day of Persons with Disabilities is to finally publish the report, or risk leaving diabled persons behind for another year.

The Six Disability/Mental Health Umbrella Organisations calling for the report are:

• Disability Federation of Ireland.
• Inclusion Ireland - The National Association for People with an Intellectual Disability.
• Independent Living Movement Ireland.
• Mental Health Reform.
• National Disability Services Association.
• .National Federation of Voluntary Service Providers.