Transport Support Schemes for People with Disabilities: Motion [Private Members]
Dail Éireann — 2023-05-04
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Neale Richmond (FG), Dublin Rathdown

Ireland has a robust suite of employment rights legislation, which offers extensive protections to workers. My Department has no plans at present to introduce new legislation to govern employment references.
While there is no statutory entitlement to a reference from an employer, where an employer does provide a reference, they have a duty of care to ensure it is fair and not misleading.
Where an employee believes their employer has provided a false employment reference, legal recourse may be possible where an under the Defamation Act 2009, which falls under the responsibility of the Minister for Justice.
In reality, however, little has happened, and that is the reason we have tabled this motion.
The Government's own commissioned report, the Indecon report entitled The Cost of Disability in Ireland, confirms that people living with a disability face additional costs of living explicitly related to disability, transport and mobility issues. Those costs are equivalent to the current payment rate of the disability allowance. Today the problem is that the disability allowance is paid at a rate which is supposed to meet the essential living costs of a citizen in this country but does not. Instead it covers just the additional cost associated with having a disability, leaving people effectively to live on fresh air, and that is not good enough. People with disabilities need access to affordable public and personal transport. Many people with disabilities, however, are confined to the home and are unable to engage on an equal basis in employment or in their community as they cannot access Government support to help with their transport needs.
I urge the Minister to take on board this motion, not just in principle but in a way that ensures it is implemented in full as a matter of urgency.

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Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:51:51+00:00
Sitting date: 2023-05-04