THE GOVERNMENT will formally acknowledge its climbdown on disability allowances today when the Minister for Social Protection will call for the suspension of the controversial measure.
Joan Burton will tell the Dáil today that she will propose an amendment to the Social Welfare Bill at the committee stage of its passage through the Oireachtas.
The amendment will suspend sections 8 and 9 of the Bill, which provide for the removal of payments of disability allowances for 16- and 17-year-olds and reductions in payments of €44 a week (down to €144) to disabled people between the ages of 22 and 24 and €88 a week (down to €100) for those aged between 18 and 21.
As the Social Welfare Bill has already been printed, the only mechanism that could be used to effectively nullify the measure would be to introduce amendments when the legislation reaches committee stage. Debate on the Bill will commence in the Dáil tomorrow.
Minister for Finance Michael Noonan said on Tuesday the decision was “worth looking at again”. Later that night, after a meeting with a four-person delegation of Fine Gael TDs, Ms Burton spoke with the secretary general of her department Niamh O’Donoghue.
The U-turn was confirmed yesterday by Taoiseach Enda Kenny, who told the Dáil that the cuts to the disability allowance would be paused pending a review.
The open-ended review into allowances and payments made to younger disabled people will be conducted by Ita Mangan, who chairs the Government-appointed working group taxation and social protection.
However, several Government sources pointed out yesterday that reviews of all disability funding formed part of the memorandum of understanding with the European Union and adjustments could not simply be ignored.
Ms Burton said she had listened to parents of severely disabled children who said they feared their teenage children could lose out because of the reform.
She maintained, however, there were concerns raised by the troika and previous ministers about full social welfare payments being made to 16- and 17-year-olds, which caused an anomaly.
Several Labour TDs supportive of Ms Burton also privately criticised comments made by Mr Noonan on RTÉ’s Pat Kenny Show yesterday, saying the cuts were “sanctioned” by Ms Burton with the “absolute best of intentions”.
One said Mr Noonan seemed to be deflecting the blame to Ms Burton despite the cut being a whole of Government decision.
A reliable source also said the Government’s economic management council (comprising the Taoiseach, Mr Noonan, Mr Howlin and Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore) had met on Saturday and had gone through the budget line by line before it was formally approved by Cabinet on Monday morning.