"Compassion for those who are suffering has been replaced by a punitive, mean-spirited, and often callous approach apparently designed to instil discipline where it is least useful, to impose a rigid order on the lives of those least capable of coping with today’s world, and elevating the goal of enforcing blind compliance over a genuine concern to improve the well-being of those at the lowest levels of society.”
New Submission Deadline - 15th March 2024
ME Advocates Ireland (MEAI) Green Paper Submission
ME Advocates Ireland (MEAI) is concerned about the adequate provision of state services, resources and welfare entitlements for people with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME).
Where services, resources and welfare entitlements are unavailable, inaccessible, or under threat of being taken away, ME Advocates Ireland (MEAI) aims to highlight these inadequacies in the hope that the situation is improved in favour of the person with M.E. associated illness and disabilities.
We have responded to the recently published government Green Paper on Disability Reform with our submission by email on behalf of members of the M.E. community in Ireland. We think that the proposal is a reductive, regressive, brutal way to frame the lived experience and reality of life for our disabled citizens, and vehemently oppose the proposal by the Irish Government to categorize disabled people for the purposes of allocating social welfare payments. Please see our reasons as outlined in our submission.
Our completed submission is available here
and the submission is also available in PDF format. If you would like a copy of the PDF please email us at info@meadvocatesireland.com or contact us via the message button on our facebook page.
The full email details re the Submission made by ME Advocates Ireland (MEAI) on 07/11/23 including te response are at the bottom of this page.
Green Paper on Disability Reform
The Minister for Social Protection in Ireland announced proposed radical welfare ouverhaul with the publication of the Government's Green Paper in September. The Disability Green Paper is available to download and view under the heading 'Documents' on the governmment page via this link.
We encourage as many people as possible to support those in the M.E. community.
Making your own submission
For anyone interested in writing a personal submission
The Government invited submissions from individuals and stakeholder organisations, particularly people with disabilities, Disabled Persons’ Organisations and Disabled Persons’ Representative Organisations, to share their views. During the consultation process you can share your views with the Government at one of their public consultation events, or through a written or video submission, more information here.
Where to make your submission
You may make your submission by email or post:
- Email: DCPolicyConsultation@welfare.ie
- Postal Address: Disability and Carers’ Policy Unit, Áras Mhic Dhiarmada, Department of Social Protection, Store Street, Dublin 1, D01 WY03.
Submission Templates
ME Advocates Ireland (MEAI) put together two template submissions regarding the Green Paper for Welfare Reform announced last month for anyone interested in responding by sending a submission.
There are two links to templates included below for anyone in the ME community who (i) is receiving a disability payment (Disability Allowance/Invalidity Pension), or (ii) for anyone who wishes to support those on disability payments.
Here are the links to the template submissions:
(i) For anyone who is receiving a disability payment (Disability Allowance/Invalidity Pension) see our template submission
(ii) For anyone who wishes to support those on disability payments see our template submission
How to edit the submission
You can edit the template that concerns you as you wish by removing or adding details. If you are not up to making edits you may send the template document as it is.
- Step 1. Please open this link if you are a person on disability payments, or this link if you would like to support those on disability payments
- Download or copy the relevant template to your PC/laptop
- Edit, then save to your device
You may make your submission by email or post:
Email: DCPolicyConsultation@welfare.ie
Postal Address: Disability and Carers’ Policy Unit, Áras Mhic Dhiarmada, Department of Social Protection, Store Street, Dublin 1, D01 WY03.
The closing date for submissions is
Responses received after this date will not be considered.
Political Representative Support
- immediately stop the proposals listed in the Green Paper on Disability Reform;- forthwith ensure that the Disability Allowance be made a universal, non-means-tested payment;- raise the Disability Allowance to the level of the PUP payment to take over 100,000 disabled citizens out of abject poverty;- ratify all protocols of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities within the lifetime of this Government.
Please use our template letter to make contact with your local TD and encourage them to raise matters with Minister Humphries and the Government. You can edit the template as you wish or use it as it is.
How to edit the TD Letter
You can edit the template as you wish by removing or adding details. If you are not up to making edits you may send the template letter as it is.
- Step 1. Please open the link above, i.e., 'Lobby Your TD Letter'
- Download or copy the template to your PC/laptop
- Edit, then save to your device
TD Email Contact Information
Here is a link to your TDs and their respective email addresses (hit the ‘constituency’ button, then ‘all constituencies’)
Deadline - The public consultation is open until 15 December 2023 15 March 2024, you must make your submission before then.
Email Details re Submission made by ME Advocates Ireland (MEAI) on 07/11/23
MEAI's Emailed Submission to DCPolicyConsultation@welfare.ie
Re: Submission re Green Paper on Disability Reform 2023
To Whom It Concerns,
ME Advocates Ireland (MEAI) is concerned about the adequate provision of state services, resources and welfare entitlements for people with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME).
Where services, resources and welfare entitlements are unavailable, inaccessible, or under threat of being taken away, ME Advocates Ireland (MEAI) aims to highlight these inadequacies in the hope that the situation is improved in favour of the person with M.E. associated illness and disabilities.
We are responding to the recently published government Green Paper on Disability Reform with our submission on behalf of members of the M.E. community in Ireland. In so doing we are contributing to the public consultation process re the Green Paper on Disability Reform, as a patient advocacy organisation with lived experience of disability, particularly of people among the Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (M.E.) community in Ireland.
ME Advocates Ireland (MEAI) is concerned about the adequate provision of state services, resources and welfare entitlements for people with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME).
Where services, resources and welfare entitlements are unavailable, inaccessible, or under threat of being taken away, ME Advocates Ireland (MEAI) aims to highlight these inadequacies in the hope that the situation is improved in favour of the person with M.E. associated illness and disabilities.
We are responding to the recently published government Green Paper on Disability Reform with our submission on behalf of members of the M.E. community in Ireland. In so doing we are contributing to the public consultation process re the Green Paper on Disability Reform, as a patient advocacy organisation with lived experience of disability, particularly of people among the Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (M.E.) community in Ireland.
Please consider our submission which is attached in pdf format.
Yours Sincerely,
XXXX
Response to our Emailed Submission from DCPolicyConsultation@welfare.ie
Thank you for your email.
Your submission will be considered as part of the public consultation process.
Some important things to note
· None of the proposals in the Green Paper are being implemented at this time, they are just proposals. Nothing is going to change for now.
· The Green Paper is not a final reform design. The proposals in it are intended to provoke discussion, debate and suggestions.
· Depending on the feedback, the model presented for Government approval may closely resemble the Green Paper or could be completely different.
· The feedback and submissions received will help to design and develop a new model of income supports for Government to consider.
Meet us at one of our public consultation events
Public consultation events are taking place in Dublin, Cork and Athlone. Register now at the links below.
· Dublin Castle, 9 November, hybrid event https://DisabilityReformDublin.eventbrite.com
· Cork, 14 November, in-person event https://DisabilityReformCork.eventbrite.com
· Athlone, 23 November, in-person event https://DisabilityReformAthlone.eventbrite.com
You can read more at www.gov.ie/DisabilityPaymentsReform
Disability and Carers' Policy Unit
Department of Social Protection
Updates
24/11/23
Thank you for your support & patience during the Green Paper campaign that is currently taking place
We are aware that there is currently a lot being posted across social media in general re the Green Paper on Disability Reform; we thank you for your support and patience around this important subject.
We will continue with our campaign until we feel that we have done enough in the public consultation process and in other areas.
Reply to our recent email from Minister Humphrey's office
Please see the reply to our recent email to Minister Humphrey'ss office in the attached PDF. It is clear that we are up against deaf ears and likely that the proposals to bring reform to disability payments will go ahead even if the decision makers are insisting that the Green Paper is not definitive. Now more than ever we need as many people as possible in the M.E. community to support the submission process and other areas of the campaign. Please see more about that below.
How can I take part in this campaign?
There are various ways you can take part in the campaign to scrap the Green Paper proposals, we would encourage as many people in the M.E. community to make a submission.
- You or your family/friend/carer can make a submission by Friday Decemeber 15th. March 15th 2024. You are welcome to use one of our templates or to use parts of MEAI's longer submission, also included. Of course you can write your own submission, all details here.
Another submission template below
Disabled People demand the Irish Government:SCRAP THE GREEN PAPERon Disability ReformThe Government's Green Paper on Disability Reform, written without disabled people & our DPOs, but currently under public consultation, is fundamentally ableist. It suggests that the government can know everything it needs to about the lives and experiences of disabled people in order to categorise us by our ability to work, when a diagnosis worthy of any assistance is often expensive and can often only be acquired through the private system or by going abroad.The Green Paper may force as many as half the people currently on disability off their payments and into work, and another third pressured into finding and entering into part time work.The Green Paper will waste HSE money. The process to receive disability payments right now is long and difficult. The government assumes the limited things they can know about disabled people through medical assessments are the only things they need to know. Forcing us to prove every aspect of our lives as disabled people in order to be left alone to care for our conditions puts us back through the process of gathering even more diagnoses and documents and scans in order to be categorised by our capacity to work. This is an ableist idea.The government's proposals will not lift most disabled people out of poverty, only endanger the mental and physical health of disabled people by increasing demands on us to go through a job seeker process not intended for us, which international evidence suggests will not work.This paper makes false assumptions about access to workplaces.Instead of starting with making workplaces more accessible, they propose threatening the payments of some of our most vulnerable, though the government denies anybody will lose their payments, contrary to he implication of the Green Paper.The Green Paper wants to dump 84% of disabled people into the Intreo system with no mention of training for Intreo officers to deal with the special circumstances that come from trying to seek work or education while being disabled.The Green Paper seeks to value disabled people only in terms of our ability to earn and forces us to prove in detail our inability to fit into a society which does not make adaptations for us. It is contrary to our UNCPD human rights. The Government must scrap the Green Paper now.
- You or you family/friend/carer can sign the petition to stop proposed categorising of disabled people for disability payments.
- You or your family/friend/carer could attend an online consultation and workshop on Thursday November 30th at 11am, all details here. Please remember to sign up for this event via eventrbrite.
- You could ask your family/friend/carer to attend the 'Scrap the Green Paper' protest event at the Dáil Kildare Street on Thursday Decemeber 7th at 12pm to 2pm, details here.
Please keep an eye on futher actions we will share over the nexts weeks/months.
Thank you for your support on this matter.
27/11/23
Extension to Green Paper Submission Deadline!!
There has been an extension made to the public consultation around the Green Paper on Disability Reform.
The closing date for submissions is now set to 15th March 2024. Responses received after this date will not be considered.
See more on Gov.ie pages under the heading Submissions: https://www.gov.ie/en/consultation/3b001-green-paper-on-disability-reform-a-public-consultation-to-reform-disability-payments-in-ireland/#public-consultation-events
The intro part to the Gov.ie page about the public consultation has not been updated yet so we have sought confirmation, however, other people have received emails from the Disability and Carers' Policy Unit of the Dept of Social Protection confirming the extension to March 15th 2024.
There has been an extension made to the public consultation around the Green Paper on Disability Reform.
The closing date for submissions is now set to 15th March 2024. Responses received after this date will not be considered.
See more on Gov.ie pages under the heading Submissions: https://www.gov.ie/en/consultation/3b001-green-paper-on-disability-reform-a-public-consultation-to-reform-disability-payments-in-ireland/#public-consultation-events
The intro part to the Gov.ie page about the public consultation has not been updated yet so we have sought confirmation, however, other people have received emails from the Disability and Carers' Policy Unit of the Dept of Social Protection confirming the extension to March 15th 2024.
Thank you all for your support on this important matter.
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