Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1694258642097.pdf (Ireland)
On behalf of the Centre for Disability Law and Policy at the University of Galway, it is my pleasure to address the Oireachtas Disability Matters Committee on the subject of inclusive, human rights-based social protection for disabled people.

In accordance with Article 28 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the purpose of social protection measures is to ensure an adequate standard of living for persons with disabilities.
This is a component of the Convention’s broader purpose to ensure the rights and dignity of disabled people are fully respected in society.

As such, social protection measures must ensure that disabled people do not fall below the minimum floor necessary to maintain a life of dignity.

To achieve this, it is important to carry out a comprehensive review of existing social protection measures for disabled people in Ireland and consider how they can be reframed.
Many of the existing social welfare payments, such as the Disability Allowance, and Blind Pension, were first introduced on the assumption that disabled people could never work on the open labour market and needed financial compensation for their impairment.

While we know such beliefs are outdated and clearly wrong, we still need to interrogate why paid employment is viewed as the main mechanism through which we as a society value human endeavour and determine who is ‘deserving’ of social protection.
For this reason it is important to explore social protection mechanisms that are not based on a medical model of impairment, nor on a fixed notion of contribution to society, such as universal basic income schemes, to consider how these might apply or be adapted to ensure full equality for disabled people.
At the same time, we must recognise the additional costs disabled people face, regardless of their employment status, including higher energy costs, transport, and specialised equipment –which are not currently met through existing social protection schemes.
The notion of a Cost of Disability social protection payment has been recommended in Ireland since the Report of the Commission on the Status of People with Disabilities in 1996 and yet has not been progressed despite economic evidence of its necessity and utility.
Finally, it is important to acknowledge the need to radically overhaul systems of assessment for disability-based social protection payments, which have been criticised in several countries by the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities for being overly medicalised.

At present, many of the measurements used are based on a static understanding of impairment, and assume that the person’s experience is the same day-to-day.
However, for many disabled people, the tasks they are able to do vary dramatically based on a wide range of factors, including the environment and the supports available.

The World Health Organisation has attempted to address this in its new Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0 and while not perfect, it should certainly be explored for adaptation in the Irish context.
For all these changes, it will be essential to engage directly with disabled people, though organisations led and governed by them, to ensure that changes to social protection schemes adhere to the principle of “nothing about us without us”.