The Union of Students in Ireland congratulates everyone involved in the Scrap the Green Paper coalition for its success in campaigning for Government not to go ahead with the changes to disability payments.
USI is completely opposed to the changes that disability groups said would not help break down the barriers that face people trying to enter the workforce and would only leave them financially worse-off.
In opposing the green paper, USI had said that Government should be looking to address the societal challenges that people with disabilities face in engaging with education, including third level, and in developing meaningful careers.
And 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.
USI was proud to stand with disability activists to call for the Green Paper on Disability Reform to be scraped and disabled people to be directly involved in preparing any such future plans.
USI President, Chris Clifford said: “USI was proud to attend the protest and join disability activists in calling for the green paper to be scrapped, and so we welcome the announcement by Government that this will now happen. We know that this green paper caused a lot of stress and upset for disabled people, and that should never have been allowed to happen. As we, and others have said before, it is also completely wrong to talk about putting people into ‘tiers’ in order to decided what support they should get. We also join calls for the Disability Allowance to be increased to cover the cost-of-living in Ireland, as it currently falls completely short of this.”