SENATOR TOM CLONAN has said the government and then social protection minister Heather Humphreys “woke up and smelled the coffee” after the defeated Care Referendum and scrapped controversial proposals to reform disability allowances. 

Humphreys is now Fine Gael’s candidate for the presidency and has been forced to answer questions about the Green Paper on Disability Reform which was published by her department in September 2023. 

The proposals in the paper included a new tiered system for Disability Allowance that would have linked the level of payments to a determination on capacity to work and the nature of the disability.

The proposals prompted a strong backlash among disability campaigners, some of whom criticised them as “ableist”. 

Clonan, a carer and disability campaigner, had been among the strongest voices against the Green Paper and labelled it as “Dickensian” at a protest in Dublin in March 2024. 

The Green Paper was scrapped by Humphreys the following month, with the minister stating that she had launched it as part of a consultation process and that “based on the feedback I have received” it was clear there were “significant concerns” around the proposals. 

The scrapping of the Green Paper in April 2024 came a month after the Care Referendum was defeated and just three days after Simon Harris replaced Leo Varadkar as Taoiseach.  

At the time, Humphreys also referenced the election of Harris as part of the announcement, saying that Harris wanted to “place a major focus on improving supports for people with disabilities”. 

Speaking today on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Clonan suggested that Humphreys has downplayed her role in supporting the Green Paper. He said he and minister held a meeting in October 2023 in which she doubled-down on her support of it. 

“What happened at that meeting was a restatement and a reiteration and a pushback that she was not for turning or changing on the proposals that were contained within the document,” he said. 

Clonan’s account of the meeting would appear to differ from an account provided by Humphreys on RTÉ’s Drivetime yesterday, when she said that she took on his concerns.

“I listened to people’s views, including Senator Clonan. I met him directly, and I spent a long time with him, and I heard his concerns. I heard the concerns of others, and based on those genuine concerns raised, I decided not to proceed with it,” Humphreys said.

Instead, Clonan said he believes the decision to scrap the document was a political one based on the political situation following the defeat of the Care Referendum. 

“The change didn’t occur until they were defeated in the Care Referendum,” Clonan said today.

“That’s when Leo Varadkar resigned,  Simon Harris was elected, and within 72 hours, they scrapped that paper, and in her statement on the 12 of April she said it was a decision of the Taoiseach that they needed a fresh approach.”

He added:

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“Let’s be politically honest here. Ideologically, that’s where you know the coalition were not friendly towards the socio-economic inalienable rights of the disabled community, and when they came crashing down, and that Care Referendum received the highest rejection from the Irish public in the history of the state, 75% of those voters voted against it, and that’s when they woke up and smelled the coffee.”

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Clonan also referenced a debate in the Seanad on 11 October 2023 when he said that Humphreys “robustly defended” the proposals in the Green Paper. 

During that debate, Humphreys emphasised that “nothing is decided here” and that they were “draft proposals for public consultation”. 

However, the minister also defended the proposal to tier disability payments, saying that “disability exists on a spectrum” and that there was a need to “to target extra resources at those who need it most.”

“For that reason, the main proposal in the Green Paper is to move to a three-tiered payment, rather than the one-size-fits-all system we currently have,” Humphreys said in October 2023.

Speaking yesterday on RTÉ’s Drivetime programme, Humphreys defended her handling of the entire controversy, asking people to “judge me on my record” and listing a number of expansions to social supports while she was minister.

“What I’m going to say is, it was only ever a consultation, I had to start a conversation on how we might go about improving disability payments for people in this country,” she said.

“I’ve always believed in consultation. I’ve always believed in hearing people’s views, and I have taken on both those views. People had concerns about the Green Paper, and that’s why I didn’t go ahead with it.”