Medical card assessment should be for all people with disabilities

MEDICAL card assessment should be all-inclusive for people with disabilities Changes in medical card assessment should be totally inclusive of all persons with a disability, whether they are an employee or an employer, Sinn Féin Deputy John Brady told the Dáil. He said he welcomed the increase in the medical card earnings disregard for persons in receipt of disability allowance.

‘It will benefit employees with disabilities but not business owners with disabilities,’ he said. ‘I have been contacted by a business owner in receipt of partial capacity benefit who will see absolutely no benefit as a result of the changes announced.’

In reply, Minister of State Finian McGrath said the Government is making good progress in making all of the requirements of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities operational in Ireland in an appropriate manner.

‘Considerable progress has been made to overcome the remaining legislative barriers to Ireland’s full implementation of the convention as set out in the 2015 roadmap,’ he said. ‘ The Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015 was signed into law on 30 December 2015 and is a comprehensive reform of the law on decision-making capacity. Section 5 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 1993 was reformed through a 2017 Act of the same name to facilitate the full participation in family life of persons with intellectual disabilities and the full expression of their human rights.’

Budget 2019 provides for an allocation of €3 million in the Vote for the Department of Justice and Equality for the establishment of the decision support service, he said. ‘A sum of €3 million was also provided for the service in the Vote for the Department of Justice and Equality in 2018. I promised that we would ratify the UNCRPD and I am delivering on that promise with the support of the Government.’