Heather Humphreys decided to drop controversial disability proposal, Harris says

By Gráinne Ní Aodha, PA

Heather Humphreys was the one who made the decision to abandon a controversial disability proposal, Simon Harris has said.

The Fine Gael leader denied that it was him who decided to end a proposal to means-test people with disabilities for social welfare when he became taoiseach.

Senator Tom Clonan said Ms Humphreys had “very strongly pushed” for tiered welfare support for disabled people while she was social protection minister.

Mr Clonan said that “at no point was Minister Humphreys for turning” and the proposal was not dropped until Mr Harris became taoiseach in April 2024.

Ms Humphreys said the measures were only suggested in a green paper and that the proposals were dropped following consultation.

Asked whether he was the one who decided to drop the proposal, Mr Harris said: “No, the minister did at the time.

“I mean, Heather Humphreys is a politician who listens to people, who engages with people, and she’s also a politician who can, very much, I think, detect where the public mood and view is at an issue,” he told RTE Radio.

“Ministers, all of the time, are given consultation papers and other things to bring forward, to bring about debate, and Heather made a decision.”

Pressed on the issue, he said: “No, the government ended it. Minister Humphreys, at the time, made that decision.

“I think it was the right decision.”

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.