€31.80 like a Lotto win to me – Ciaran

A local recipient of the training allowance for people with disabilities that is being axed by the government has criticised the decision and believes it will end up costing the state more money in the long run.

After years of physical and mental ill health, Ciaran Costello told the Westmeath Examiner this week that returning to education for the first time since he was 13 has given him a new lease of life.

The former taxi-driver from Clonmellon has suffered from a range of health problems for years, including arthritis and complications from an operation for a hernia that means he will be on antibiotics for the rest of his life. They also forced him to stop working as a self employed driver.

Aside from the physical effects of his illnesses, he says that being unable to work and having to depend on an invalidity benefit of €208 per week had a negative impact on his mental health.

However, he says that his outlook improved significantly since he joined the Ar Aghaidh Linn course run by the National Learning Network at the Springfield Centre in Mullingar in January 2018.

Described on the NLN’s website as “a social exploration course designed for students who have had a setback in their lives as a result of physical/sensory disability”, Ar Aghaidh Linn “gives students the chance to explore different education, training and community opportunities open to them”.

In recent years, a number of students have continued their education, with some progressing to third level courses.

Since he joined the course, he has acquired a range of new skills, including a number of computer qualifications. His literacy and numeracy have also improved.

However, despite the educational progress he has made, he says that social and therapeutic aspects of the course are just as important.

“It’s not only about learning in here. You are getting out and meeting other people like yourself. We may not have the same disabilities, but we can all relate to each other. It’s also brilliant fun. You do learn too, the tutors are brilliant.

“It has boosted my confidence something great. My mental health is on a level too. I am not in the doldrums all the time.”

In addition to his invalidity benefit, Ciaran and many of his fellow students receive a training allowance of €31.80 a week. He says that if it wasn’t for the allowance, which the government has controversially decided to axe for new entrants, he wouldn’t have been able to afford to make the journey from Clonmellon every day.

“I use it for petrol to come into the centre. Otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to come in because trying to live off an invalidity pension alone is hard. I know it doesn’t sound much – €31.80 – but when you are in a situation like mine, it is like winning the Lotto.

“From Clonmellon to Mullingar is about 20 kilometres and to do the round trip every day, I wouldn’t have been able to do it. There is no regular bus service from our area, you have to ring up for the Town Link and sometimes you have to ring up weeks in advance to book a seat.”

Although his tutors are encouraging him to do a follow-on computer course when his current one is finished, Ciaran says that without the training allowance it’s highly unlikely that he will be in a position to do so.

It’s been reported that around €3.7m will be saved by axing the allowance which is paid to people with disabilities on some training programmes. Minister for Health Simon Harris has defended the decision saying that the savings will be used to provide 300 day training places for people with disabilities.

Given the small incomes that many people with disabilities have to live on and the progress that he and many of his fellow students have made during their time on the course, Ciaran says that it “makes his blood boil” that the government would cut the training allowance.

“If I hadn’t got this course, the government would have been paying for a hospital bed or a bed in a psychiatric hospital. It would have been far more money.”