Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) has welcomed the government’s scrapping of the Green Paper on Disability Reform.
Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys announced on Friday that the recommendations made in the paper would not be implemented following widespread criticism.
In a post on social media, the union said that the decision proves that “when united, students can make a difference”.
“None of this would have been possible without the amazing work of Scrap the Green Paper Coalition and other disability rights activists and organisations who have campaigned for this cause”, the union added.
Earlier this year, the union voted to “oppose the Green Paper on Disability Reform in its entirety” and to support the Scrap the Green Paper coalition.
Published late last year, the paper proposed a reform to the allocation of disability payments by creating a three-tier system determined by the “nature and impact” of the disability.
Under the proposal, people with disabilities would be medically assessed by the Department of Social Protection to determine their “capacity to work”, with a corresponding welfare payment being allocated on the basis of the result of this evaluation.
The motion passed by the union in February claimed that the proposals were in breach of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).
Speaking to Trinity News, TCDSU Disabilities Officer Keely Jenkinson said that the decision to scrap the proposal is “very welcomed” but that “took way too much time” to happen.
“It’s a wake up call for the government to stop making Tory carbon copies of bill mistakes made by the government in Britain,” she added.
The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) also welcomed the scrapping of the green paper, congratulating “everyone involved in the Scrap the Green Paper coalition for its success in campaigning for the Government not to go ahead with the changes to disability payments”.
“The union will continue to back the work of disability activists, and campaign for students with disabilities for this to happen and will keep pushing for an equitable quality of life for all disabled people.”
