Minister defends Humphreys after criticism from disability activist

By Gráinne Ní Aodha, PA

A Fine Gael minister has defended the party’s presidential hopeful Heather Humphreys after a disability activist criticised her over a proposal to tier disability welfare.

Senator Tom Clonan said Ms Humphreys “very strongly pushed” for tiered welfare supports for disabled people while she was social protection minister, and spread “huge fear and consternation” among the disability and caring community.

He said that protests were organised against the proposals, but “at no point was Minister Humphreys for turning” until Simon Harris became Taoiseach in April 2024.

Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill was asked about Ms Humphreys and the proposals, and about a meeting between Mr Clonan and Ms Humphreys about the proposals that took place at the time.

“I don’t have any knowledge about any such meeting, but what I do know is that Heather worked persistently to try to improve the lives of people who needed more support in different ways,” she said.

She added: “Heather Humphreys was part of a government that was trying to find different ways of supporting people with disabilities to live the best and fullest lives they could, including through work activation.

“There’s a whole range of different measures that might be done to support people with disabilities in different ways.

“I don’t have any knowledge about that, but what I do know is that Heather Humphreys was there in the Department of Social Protection, advocating every year for better and bigger budgets for her to support people who couldn’t work for different reasons, over people who perhaps could work, and chose not to. They were her priorities.”

The proposals in the green paper included a tiered allowance which would link the level of payments to a determination on capacity to work and the nature of the disability.

Disability activists said the plans were a “degrading and humiliating” value judgment that would give the impression that some people were falsifying the extent of their impairment or illness.

Mr Clonan has described the green paper as a “cut-and-paste” of a “very discredited austerity measure” in the UK called the Workplace Capacity Assessment.

He said the document would mean 250,000 recipients of Disability Allowance would need to be medically examined every five years.

“These are people like my son, who can’t get medical interventions, who can’t get surgeries on the scoliosis waiting list, who can’t get therapies, and this proposal was to have them compulsorily medically examined under capacity to work,” he told RTÉ Radio.

The senator said that in a Seanad debate on October 11th, Ms Humphreys “robustly defended every aspect of that paper” and the government voted 2:1 to endorse the paper.

He said in a 30-minute meeting with Ms Humphreys on October 24th, she “set out very clearly to me at that meeting that she was not for turning”.

He added: “The green paper was the road-map, was the pathway for reform of disability payments.”

He said: “The change didn’t occur until they were defeated in the care referendum, and that’s when Leo Varadkar resigned, Simon Harris was elected, and within 72 hours they scrapped that paper.

“In her statement on April 12th, she said it was a decision of the Taoiseach that they needed a fresh approach.”

Ms Humphreys said in that statement that the decision not to implement the proposals was based on concerned feedback and “a major focus on improving supports” for people with disabilities by Mr Harris.

Asked about Mr Clonan’s comments on Wednesday, Ms Humphreys said: “I find this very hurtful, because I have never tried to cause distress to anyone, and I’ve always advocated for disabled people and their rights throughout my career.”

She said “nobody was going to receive lower benefits”, and that she “believed in consultation”.

“I heard the concerns of others, and based on those genuine concerns raised, I decided not to proceed with it,” she added.

Mr Clonan said on Thursday morning: “This isn’t a personal attack of Minister Humphreys, it’s a political critique.

“And in terms of hurt, I have a young man at home. He has a neuro-muscular disease. He’s partially sighted, and against all the odds, he’s due to graduate in October with a degree in social science.

“But tomorrow he’s going into Vincent’s Hospital for an MRI brain scan. Because of the deterioration in his condition, they’re banking his voice.

“We were told by the wonderful team in Vincent’s that the funding isn’t even available to bank his voice, so his 17-year-old brother is going through family clips of videos to try and harvest examples of his voice. Now that’s hurt.”