Disabilities Assessments
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-17
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Emer Higgins (FG), Dublin Mid-West

I thank the Deputy and all members of the Oireachtas committee who were involved in the joint Oireachtas committee, JOC, report on this. As the Deputy is aware, a Bill proposing targeted amendment of the Disability Act went before Cabinet yesterday. The disability (amendment) Bill 2026 will introduce changes to make the AON process more efficient, consistent, fair and transparent while maintaining a person's statutory right to an assessment.
As the Deputy mentioned, this will come at us quite quickly because so much preparatory work has been done in this regard, both on the standardised guidelines that will underpin it but also through the work of the Deputy's JOC. We hope to have this in the House on Second Stage next week. I look forward to being able to discuss it with the Deputy more at that point.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-17/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:48+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-17