2026-01-28

I move: That Dáil Éireann: notes that: — disabled people in Ireland are among the most socially excluded and disadvantaged in the State, with some of the highest poverty, deprivation, and unemployment rates in Ireland; — one in five disabled people live in consistent poverty, nearly four times the national average, while nearly 40 per cent live in enforced deprivation; — in the context of escalating costs in energy, food and housing, disabled people are particularly vulnerable to cost pressures, especially as they are more likely to spend more of their time at home; — the State-commissioned Indecon Cost of Disability in Ireland - Research Report, published in 2021, estimated the extra cost of living with a disability to be in the range of €8,700 - €12,300 (€10,490 - €14,830 adjusted for inflation); — Budget 2026 reduced income for disabled people by an estimated €1,400 per year, according to the Disability Federation of Ireland; and — the Disability Federation of Ireland has called Budget 2026 a "devastating setback for disabled people… which leaves disabled people poorer, unsupported, and excluded"; further notes that: — the need for a cost of disability payment has been identified as far back as 2004, something which was reaffirmed by the Indecon report; — a 2022 Economic and Social Research Institute report entitled "Headline Poverty Target Reduction in Ireland and the Role of Work and Social Welfare" found working-age adults with disabilities experience "distinctively high rates of income poverty, deprivation and consistent poverty"; — the 2025 Programme for Government committed to the introduction of "a permanent annual Cost of Disability support payment with a view to incrementally increasing this payment"; — the Government has failed to deliver any such permanent payment, and instead delivered a Budget which cut the incomes of disabled people and left them worse off; and — as a result of the Government cutting their incomes, disabled people have been forced to make unconscionable decisions about how to live on more limited means, forgoing necessary levels of home heating, nutrition, and greatly reducing their mobility and independence; recognises that: — the Government repeatedly claims that it wants to target resources at those who need it most and an emergency winter payment for disabled people would do just that, meaning it is in line with purported Government budgetary policy; — disabled people need emergency financial support as they are experiencing an extremely challenging winter period, due to cost pressures associated both with their disabilities and seasonal costs, including energy, housing, and food costs; — an immediate emergency winter payment would serve as a vital support, which would protect against the increased risk to disabled people of falling into poverty and deprivation; and — an emergency €400 winter payment is affordable and fiscally sustainable, given the cost of the measure, €124 million, amounts to a small portion of the budget surplus last year, which was even larger than the Government forecasted; and calls on the Government to: — immediately (within a month of this motion being agreed) introduce an emergency winter payment of €400 to all qualified recipients of; — Disabilities Allowance; — Invalidity Pension; — Blind Pension; — Incapacity Supplement; — Disablement Pension; and — Domiciliary Care Allowance; and — immediately progress the introduction of a permanent cost of disability support payment, as promised in the Programme for Government, as a matter of urgency. I rise to introduce this motion, on behalf of my party, to introduce an emergency winter payment for people with disabilities, who are so badly in need of the support of this House. I thank the disability organisations - the Irish Wheelchair Association, the Disability Federation of Ireland and Access for All - and others for their leadership in this campaign and the opportunity to support them. I also thank my parliamentary party colleagues for their support and Deputy Liam Quaide, to my left, for his counsel and leadership and his work on disability policy. We bring this motion to describe the callousness of the Government and present it with an opportunity to correct its neglect. People with disabilities in Ireland face a cruel system and a crueller Government. They are the cohort in Ireland with among the highest poverty rates and deprivation rates. The experiences of people with disabilities in services - transport, housing, access to care, financial support, accessibility, educational supports - illustrate the astonishing range with which the State manages to fail disabled people. Ireland's employability gap for people with disabilities, according to a 2022 OECD report, is the highest in the developed world, meaning that if you are disabled in Ireland, you are less likely than your peers to be employed than in any other developed country. What a damning indictment of successive Governments' policy. To add insult to injury, this Government chose in its most recent budget to strip people with disabilities of €1,400 in annual payments, according to the Disability Federation of Ireland. Last month many disabled people gathered in the cold and rain outside the gates of Leinster House to describe the brutality of this winter. I and many others in this House heard their stories: the woman who searches in her wheelchair from shop to shop to find the best deals for food; the man with the cane who sits in front of his electric heater and is now turning on only one heating rung instead of two; the mother with Parkinson's who had to take her child out of crèche because she had to choose between that and feeding her family; the young man choosing between heat and charging his electric wheelchair. The list goes on and on. During budget week, the Minister for Social Protection told this House that he had introduced payments that would keep up with inflation. What he did not say is that the net change for people on disabilities payments was negative. Not only did he not keep up with the generalised rate of inflation or with energy costs, housing costs or food costs; he also failed to keep disabled people's incomes level with even the nominal levels that they were at last year. He actually reduced them. I know the Minister is a good man. He is doing his best. Quite frankly, however, a reduction in incomes for people with disabilities, especially during a cost-of-living crisis, is absolutely appalling and shocking. When I asked the Minister for a report on the cost-of-disability payment in committee, he responded by saying he did not like reports and would prefer to act. Well, here is the Minister's opportunity. He can act, and Fianna Fáil can act with him. We have even written the motion for him and designed the scheme. All he has to do is say yes. Should he say no, however, I have a request. It is not good enough to just read from the sheet prepared by his officials or collaborate with the Government Whip on voting down or amending the motion. No, he must go further. I ask him not to visit upon the disabled people of this country a further indignity of not being honest with them as he does so. I ask him to at least have the courage to tell them that he will reduce their income and will not restore it this year. I ask him to at least tell them that he has no intention of honouring the commitment in the programme for Government on a cost-of-disability payment until he is at least 40% of the way through his term. I ask him to at least give them his honesty if he cannot give them his support, and I ask him to look them in the eye as he does so. Some of them are here in the Gallery and they are watching. To those of you at home watching, perhaps with one rung of the heater on instead of two, I want you to know that the Social Democrats knows you are there. We see you, we hear you and we share your anger. We are fighting for you, even if this Government is not. I commend the motion to the House.

The cost-of-living crisis is affecting people across society but disproportionately impacting disabled people. It has been long established that disabled people already face major additional financial burdens that result from living with a disability in a society that is so poorly adapted to their needs. These costs mount up daily in areas like healthcare, transport, energy, specialist equipment and the variety of supports needed to live as independently as possible. The figures are stark. Two in every five people with a disability cannot afford essentials like heating or new clothes. One in five lives in consistent poverty. Disabled people here also face far greater barriers to employment than their European counterparts. Yet, instead of easing that pressure, budget 2026 is leaving disabled people €1,400 worse off than the previous year. That is indefensible. In the Social Democrats alternative budget, we put forward fair and achievable proposals, including a permanent cost-of-disability payment alongside a €15 weekly increase in disability allowance. Taken together, those measures would have increased disabled people's incomes by over €1,800 a year. Following a campaign led by a coalition of disability organisations in December, we called on the Government to introduce an emergency winter payment of €400 for disabled people and we are doing so again today. We actually agree with the Government that targeted cost-of-living measures are needed for groups most vulnerable to poverty, but the Government failed to take that opportunity in the recent budget. It did not introduce the cost-of-disability payment that was set out in the programme for Government and actually stripped away one-off supports. At that protest in December, one man spoke about having to decide whether to turn on two bars or one bar on his electric heater because energy costs have risen so sharply. At a later session here on the campus of Leinster House, we heard a harrowing account of a woman having to stop home dialysis because of energy costs and relying instead on hospital dialysis, which placed her health more at risk and is actually a greater financial cost to the State. This is the gulf that has opened up in Ireland between a flourishing economy on the one hand and the vindication of basic rights for disabled people on the other. We again urge the Minister to intervene and deliver this modest targeted payment. It would benefit around 310,000 people at a cost of approximately €124 million. It is eminently doable. Each year winter bonus payments across core social welfare schemes are funded through Supplementary Estimates. This payment we are proposing can be delivered in exactly the same way. Of course, much more needs to be done in the medium to long term, such as removing barriers to education and employment, introducing personalised budgets and delivering the permanent cost-of-disability payment. Right now, however, people are struggling, and a targeted €400 payment would be a very modest step in the right direction and would make a material difference to people who have been disregarded for too long. This comes back to basic respect and dignity for disabled people. They deserve a Government that puts its money where its mouth is when it comes to the real, unavoidable costs of living with a disability and a Government that matches soothing rhetoric around disability rights with concrete action.

Fight, fight, fight, scrap, argue and fight again. That is how one disabled woman described her relationship with the State in the audiovisual room recently. She is not alone. It is the one thing that always comes back when we talk to disabled people about their real lived experiences. It is a constant struggle for them. They are trying to fight and advocate for themselves to get supports they not only need, but are entitled to. Disabled people really feel like this Government has forgotten them and that they have been ignored. When you look at the budget that went through in October, it is clear why they feel that way. The budget was absolutely huge. We are a wealthy country. Millions upon millions were given in tax breaks to developers, and yet disabled people are €1,400 worse off as a result of that budget. I really do not understand how the Government can talk about supporting disabled people when it is leaving them that far behind in the annual budget. I know it is planned to bring in a cost-of-disability allowance. That is really welcome, but there is a gap. People are struggling now. This motion is very modest. We are talking about €400. However, it will support disabled people over the period from now, when they are struggling with the cost of living, until the time when the Minister is able to bring in that cost-of-disability payment. We really ask that the Minister look at this. I also ask the Minister, when he stands up, not to speak to us, the people in the Gallery and the people watching this debate about the services now being provided for disabled people because that is the constant narrative from the Government. Disabled people cannot eat services. They cannot clothe themselves with disability services. They cannot pay their rent or mortgage with disability services. They certainly cannot heat their homes with them. We are talking about a €400 payment. It is very targeted. It is targeted at the people who need it most. We have discussed this with Government backbenchers and they agree. The Minister knows this is the right thing to do. I ask him to give serious consideration to it, particularly as people are not going to be able to manage until he can bring in the cost-of-disability payment.

This motion requires the Government to do the right thing for disabled people. I worked with the Irish Wheelchair Association in the late nineties as a personal assistant. Just before that, I worked as a personal support worker for disabled people in London. I was a newly graduated young person and I was very happy to do that work and gain an insight into the perspectives, practical needs and care needs of people with disabilities. At the time, I noted that services and supports for disabled people in London were far better than those for Dubliners. I am not sure that Dubliners are now in a better situation than they were in the late nineties. Things are equally as bad. This country needs to make sure that all vulnerable people are protected. When we have all of the budget surpluses we have, I am lost for words that we always choose to forget the most vulnerable in our society. The need for a cost-of-disability payment was identified as far back as 2004, only a couple of years after I came back from London, when I was working with people with disabilities. That principle was reaffirmed by the State-commissioned Indecon report published in 2021. In 2022, the ESRI produced a report, Headline Poverty Target Reduction in Ireland and the Role of Work and Social Welfare, which found that "working-age ... [people] with disabilities ... experienced distinctively high rates of income poverty, deprivation and consistent poverty". It is mind-boggling that working people would still face consistent poverty. The programme for Government contains a commitment regarding the introduction of "a permanent Annual Cost of Disability Support Payment with a view to incrementally increasing this payment." However, when it came to budget 2026, there were tumbleweeds. Nothing was included. The Government has come out with this new mantra that this is year one of a five-year budget. That is no use to people with disabilities who cannot pay their bills now. As my colleagues stated, they are choosing between eating and heating. They are choosing whether to turn on a dialysis machine and to live their lives with dignity. The cynical part of me wonders whether the Government is saving up money in this year one of a five-year budget until just before the next election, when there will be a big splurge. I really hope I am wrong about that. I really hope I am just being uber-cynical and that this will not prove to be the case. In my constituency of Dublin South-Central, I meet people who are struggling to pay bills, eat healthily and heat their homes. They really need this extra money. As I said earlier, no one in this country should be struggling or falling below a safety net. They should be allowed to live their lives with dignity. This motion gives the Government a solution. The Taoiseach regularly stands where the Minister is sitting now during Leaders' Questions and tells us that we do not offer solutions. Here is a solution. It is very practical. As Deputy Whitmore said, it is not going to cost the earth but it will mean the world to people with disabilities. This is an easy solution. Please take it. We love giving our solutions away because we have solutions that are costed, focused and evidence based. We are working with people in the community in this country and we know that things are not as good as they should be. I ask the Minister to consider what we are saying.

I thank Deputies Hayes and Quaide for bringing this motion before us and for their commitment in respect of this matter. Effective parliamentary exchange often involves a contest of beliefs. Some people hold certain values while others hold different values. That is an exchange. However, this motion also includes what are just facts. If I mention a fact that the Minister disputes or says is not true, he should feel free to call me out. The first fact is that "disabled people in Ireland are among the most socially excluded and disadvantaged in the State, with some of the highest poverty, deprivation, and unemployment rates in Ireland". The next fact is that "one in five disabled people live in consistent poverty, nearly four times the national average, while nearly 40 per cent live in enforced deprivation". The motion reads: ... in the context of escalating costs in energy, food and housing, disabled people are particularly vulnerable to cost pressures, especially as they are more likely to spend more of their time at home ... We know that to be true. The next line reads: ... the State-commissioned Indecon Cost of Disability in Ireland - Research Report, published in 2021, estimated the extra cost of living with a disability to be in the range of €8,700 - €12,300 ... That is €14,800 when adjusted for inflation. We also know that to be true. Given the truths and the facts that all of us across the Chamber must accept regardless of our beliefs and values, this motion is effectively about whether we are willing to let disabled people sit in cold homes this winter while the State tells itself comforting stories about its future plans. Right now, people with disabilities are being forced into decisions that no one in this Chamber would accept for themselves. They have to choose between heating and food, medication or the equipment they need to stay alive and independent. That is not rhetoric. That is the lived reality described by the Irish Wheelchair Association, the Disability Federation of Ireland and Access for All Ireland, which protested outside this House in December asking for one urgent and modest intervention, an emergency winter payment of €400. Disability in Ireland is not just about individual circumstances. It is about inequality. It is also about the extra costs people face just to get around, stay connected and live with dignity. These are absolutely not lifestyle choices. They are the price of participation in society. If you are disabled, you are more likely to struggle to make ends meet. You are more likely to face barriers in accessing housing, transport, work and education. You are more likely to be pushed to the margins and told to wait. We know from the State's own research that the cost of disability can swallow more than half of a household's disposable income. The cost can rise even higher for people with severe limitations. When you strip that cost out, poverty rates for disabled households explode. These are not marginal pressures. They are structural, relentless and exhausting for those who are forced to experience them. Disabled households carry costs most of us will never have to think about, such as the costs of medical equipment that has to stay powered, assistive technology, accessible transport, modified homes and ongoing care. None of these are optional. All of them cost money. Budget 2026 stripped away cost-of-living supports, leaving disabled people up to €1,400 worse off. The Government knew the cost of disability was not addressed and chose to proceed anyway. It made a judgment, and today we are asking it to reflect on that decision. It is shameful that we are even debating this in such a wealthy country. Last week, we were talking about the fall-out and anxiety faced by thousands of carers opening letters warning them that they may now owe tax. This week, we are debating whether people with disabilities should simply be able to heat their homes. That says everything about who we keep asking to pay the price. There seems to be no limit to how far this Government is willing to go when it comes to making life harder for people with disabilities, whether that be through administrative decisions, quiet policy choices or simple delay. That is how inequality grows, quietly and predictably, budget after budget. We are often told in this House, when we bring forward solutions, whether it is housing, infrastructure, policing or school places, that the issue is not that simple, that things take time, legislation has to change and that a system needs to catch up. However, the motion we bring forward today is literally that simple. There are people with disabilities who live in households they cannot afford to heat. We are in the throes of winter. It is freezing, and there are people with disabilities who are making choices between heating, eating and medical equipment. There is a requirement for urgency in how we approach this because it is not reflective of a modern republic when we ask people who are already vulnerable to experience hardship that none of us across the Chamber would ourselves ever have to face.

Tairgim leasú Uimh. 1: To delete all words after "Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following: "recognises that: — the Government acknowledges that disabled people face additional costs in their daily lives; — the Government's determination to address this issue is reflected in the Programme for Government commitment, to introduce a permanent Annual Cost of Disability Support Payment; — delivering on this commitment is a core objective of the National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People 2025-2030, which the Government published in September 2025; — a dedicated Disability Unit has been established in the Department of An Taoiseach, to drive progress in enhancing supports for disabled people; — progress will be driven and monitored by the Cabinet Committee on Children, Disability and Education; — under the National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People 2025-2030, which was developed with the involvement of disability advocates and representative groups, the Department of Social Protection is mandated to lead a cross-Government Strategic Focus Network Summit on the Cost of Disability; and — work is already underway to establish and define the detailed remit of the Strategic Focus Network Summit: — the Strategic Focus Network Summit will be organised by the Department of Social Protection and, as a cross-Government endeavour, will include, other Government departments, and importantly it will involve disabled people and their advocates; — this work will inform the approach to be taken in delivering on the Programme for Government commitment; — officials have held meetings with a number of organisations to discuss the structure and content of the Strategic Focus Network Summit; — the views of disabled people and all relevant research, such as the Indecon Cost of Disability in Ireland - Research Report, and the more recent Economic and Social Research Institute report entitled "Headline Poverty Target Reduction in Ireland and the Role of Work and Social Welfare", will be given due consideration when progressing this work; and — a public consultation process on how a cost of disability can best be delivered will also be launched shortly; notes that: — there is already a broad range of income support payments for disabled people; — there are approximately 231,000 recipients of disability income support payments and 170,000 recipients of caring payments, including the Domiciliary Care Allowance (DCA), with estimated expenditure of €6.5 billion across illness, disability and carer's schemes combined in 2026; and — Budget 2026 provided for a €1.15 billion package of new social protection measures, and this contained significant targeted measures to support disabled people, including: — a €20 per month increase in the monthly rate of DCA bringing it to €380 per month from January 2026, this represents an increase of over €70 or 23 per cent since 2022; — a €10, or 4.1 per cent increase in the weekly rates of payment, bringing the personal rates of payment to €254 per week from January 2026, this represents a €51 increase in weekly disability income support payments since Budget 2021; — the highest ever increases in the Child Support Payment, an increase of €16 to €78 for children aged 12 or over, and of €8 to €58 for children under 12, these payments have increased by €48.20 and €28.20 respectively since 2017; — a €5, or 15 per cent increase in the Fuel Allowance, bringing it to €38 per week from January 2026 providing recipients with an additional €140 during the annual Fuel Allowance season; and — an increase of €325 to €1,000 in the income disregard for single carers and €750 to €2,000 in the disregard for a couple, these increases mean a couple with an income of just under €140,000 can still qualify for a carer's payment; — both the increases to personal rates of payment and the Fuel Allowance were ahead of the general inflation rate reported by the Central Statistics Office of 3.2 per cent in the year to the end of November 2025, and an energy cost increase of approximately 3.5 per cent for the same period; and — to make the welfare to work journey as smooth as possible, and to support disabled people into work, Budget 2026 provided for: — people moving from Disability Allowance or Blind Pension to take up work to retain their Fuel Allowance payment for five years; — people getting Disability Allowance or Blind Pension who have children being eligible for Back to Work Family Dividend when taking up employment and moving off those payments; — expansion of the Wage Subsidy Scheme (WSS) to people who acquire a disability while in employment, and to those who transfer from Invalidity Pension to Partial Capacity Benefit; and — increased rates under the WSS, which will take effect from April; — in Budget 2026, the Government allocated €3.8 billion to the Department of Children, Disability and Equality for disability services in 2026, including funding for community-based specialist disability services to ensure people with disabilities receive the right support, at the right time, in the right place; — this represents a 20 per cent increase year-on-year and represents an overall increase since 2020 of €1.8 billion; and — a dedicated unit has been established in the Department of Children, Disability and Equality, to drive reform and to lead a full review of Ireland's disability service model and this unit will work hand-in-hand with disabled people, their families, and representative organisations to shape a long-term vision for services to 2030; and further notes that: — under the Supplementary Welfare Allowance (SWA) scheme, a special Heating Supplement may be paid to assist people in certain circumstances that have special heating needs, for example, in the case of ill health, infirmity or a medical condition; — an Additional Needs Payment may also be made to help meet an essential, once-off cost which an applicant is unable to meet out of their own resources; — in 2025 there were over 2,300 Additional Needs Payments made towards household bills and heating at a cost of almost €1.3 million; — there were 692 recipients of Heat Supplement at end of 2025; and — any person who considers they may have an entitlement to a payment under the SWA scheme is encouraged to contact their local community welfare service, and the National Community Welfare Contact Centre is in place - 0818-607080 - which will direct callers to the appropriate office.". Gabhaim buíochas leis na Daonlathaithe Sóisialta as cúrsaí míchumais a ardú sa Teach. Gabhaim buíochas leis na Teachtaí Hayes agus Quaide as an rún tábhachtach seo. I assure the Cathaoirleach that the Government recognises that disabled people, their families and representative organisations face unavoidable and ongoing additional costs in their daily lives. I assure the House that improving outcomes for disabled people is a top priority for me personally, and for the Government. It is our determination to achieve this, and this is reflected in a key programme for Government commitment that will introduce a permanent annual cost-of-disability support payment. Delivering on this commitment is a core objective of the national human rights strategy for disabled people. A dedicated disability unit has been established in Roinn an Taoisigh to drive progress in enhancing supports for disabled people. Progress will also be driven and monitored by the Cabinet committee. We know that addressing the cost of disability is not a question of income support alone. The delivery of, and access to, services is also key. The Private Members' motion refers to the Indecon report on the cost of disability. That report was commissioned by my Department, but it sets out how addressing the additional cost of disability requires a broader approach than simply increasing existing payments or introducing new ones. We need all of the Departments and agencies of government to work together to address this issue in a comprehensive way. Under the National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People 2025-2030, which was developed with the involvement of disability advocates and representative groups, the Department of Social Protection is mandated to lead a cross-government strategic focus summit on the cost of disability. That work is under way, and I will come back to that later on. There is a broad range of income support payments for disabled people, including disability allowance, partial capacity benefit and invalidity pension. There are approximately 231,000 recipients of disability income support payments and 170,000 recipients of caring payments, including domiciliary care allowance. Expenditure across illness, disability and carer’s schemes combined in 2026 is estimated at €6.5 billion, which represents an increase in expenditure of approximately 38% since 2020. We were clear as a Government that there would be no one-off payments in budget 2026. I want to introduce permanent measures that will improve outcomes for disabled people. I also take this opportunity to outline the measures Government has in place to support disabled people. Budget 2026 provided for a €1.15 billion package of new social protection measures. It builds on the already comprehensive level of support available by targeting measures aimed at supporting carers and recipients of domiciliary care allowance and making it easier for people with disability to progress into and, more important, stay in employment. Recipients of payments received a Christmas bonus of a double week’s payment in December. We provided a €20 increase in the monthly rate of domiciliary care allowance, which brought it to €380 from January. This represents an increase of over €70, or 23%, since 2022. We also increased the weekly personal rate of payment such as disability allowance by €10, or 4.1%. That brings the personal rate of payment to €254 per week from this month, which represents a €51 increase in the weekly disability income support payments since budget 2021. Recipients of disability allowance and other payments who have children have seen their weekly rates of child support payment increase by €16 to €78 for children aged 12 or over, and by €8 to €58 for children under 12, from January 2026. These are the largest ever increases in these payments, which have increased by €48.20 and €28.20, respectively, since 2017. This month, the fuel allowance payment increased by €5 to €38 per week. This represents an increase of 15%, providing recipients with an additional €140 during the annual fuel allowance season. Both the increases to personal rates of payment and the fuel allowance are ahead of the general inflation rate reported by the Central Statistics Office of 3.2% in the year to the end of November 2025. Importantly, in relation to the cost of living, and the cases being referred to by Deputies, nobody in Ireland needs to go without food or heating for financial reasons. My Department’s community welfare service is available to provide financial support for those essentials. I do not want a misleading and dangerous message to go out that people must choose between food and heating. I will ask my officials to again engage with the organisations to point out the supports and contact points available. Under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, a special heating supplement may be paid to assist people in certain circumstances who have special heating needs, for example, in the case of ill health, infirmity or a medical condition. Additional need payments may also be made to help meet essential one-off costs, which an applicant is unable to meet out of their own resources. These payments are available to those who need them and qualify, regardless of whether they are in receipt of a social protection payment. In 2025, there were over 2,300 additional need payments made towards household bills and heating, at an investment of almost €1.3 million. At the end of 2025, there are 692 recipients of heat supplement. Again, I ask any person who considers they may have an entitlement to a payment under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme to contact the Department. I will provide contact details to Deputies. There are supports, and I want to make sure that those who need them know they are there and that they can avail of them. The budget also contained a number of measures, in line with work I am doing on an ongoing basis, to make the welfare to work journey as smooth as possible and to support disabled people into work. Those moving from disability allowance or blind pension to take up work will be able to retain their fuel allowance payment for up to five years. We are making the back to work family dividend available to people who move off disability allowance or the blind pension and into employment. The wage subsidy scheme is a key disability employment support provided by my Department. It aims to encourage employers to offer substantial and sustainable employment to disabled people and it supports the employer to cover the costs of significantly adapting a job’s tasks or role. Budget 2026 provides for reducing the number of bands in the wage subsidy scheme from five to three and increasing all the rates so that from April 2026, the base rate will be €7.50 per hour, up from €6.30. Where an employer employs between seven and 16 employees under the scheme, they will receive a new rate of €8.50. In addition, an employer who employs 25 or more employees on the wage subsidy scheme may receive a grant of €30,000 towards the cost of employing an employment assistance officer. These changes are important because they encourage employment. As Deputy Hayes said, we have one of the lowest records and I want to change that. They are also hugely important because we know that a fear of losing secondary benefits is a major barrier to people taking up employment. We have also provided for the extension of the wage subsidy scheme to people already at work, who acquire a disability or whose ability to work has reduced such that their job has to be significantly adapted. Last year, we modernised the language of the wage subsidy scheme in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. We also increased the pool of potential employers. I will continue to focus on employment and increasing the opportunities available for disabled people within employment. I want to focus now on the work that is under way in my Department in relation to the cost of disability and the permanent payment. This is a cross-government endeavour, including other Government Departments. Most importantly, it involves ongoing consultation with disabled people and their advocates. My officials have already held a series of meetings to discuss issues in relation to the strategic focus network summit as well as cost-of-disability issues. Last October, we held bilateral meetings with the National Disability Authority, AsIAm, Family Carers Ireland and the Disability Federation of Ireland. The cost-of-disability strategic focus network summit was the main agenda item at my Department's disability consultative forum on 2 December last. The organisations that attended were Chime, the Disability Federation of Ireland, Inclusion Ireland, Independent People with Disabilities, the Irish Society for Autism, the Irish Wheelchair Association, the National Advocacy Service, the National Disability Authority, Rehab and Vision Ireland. Just last Friday, we met with the Disabled Persons' Organisations Network, namely, the Irish Deaf Society, the National Platform of Self-Advocates, Disabled Women Ireland, AsIAm and Independent Living Movement Ireland. We will be launching a public consultation on this payment and I look forward to submissions from across the House in relation to that. As I committed to Deputy O'Reilly, I intend to discuss it with the Joint Committee on Social Protection. I assure the House that this is my priority for budget 2027. I look forward to submissions on what that payment may look like and to engagement well ahead of budget 2027, so we have a chance to get a fully agreed proposal, if possible, on what that payment will look like. The key difference is that this is a permanent payment, not a year-on-year temporary payment. It is a permanent investment in addressing the cost of disability for those who need it.

People with disabilities in this country consistently live in poverty and experience financial struggles much more than the general population, as we have heard in detail from my colleagues this morning. Addressing the cost of disability is not giving something extra for people with disabilities as an act of generosity or pity. It is about creating a more equal Ireland and realising the rights of a group of individuals who face huge barriers to the realisation of those rights. It is about showing people the respect that they deserve as valued members of society. We need to see the cost of disability addressed in the long term. People with disabilities should not live with a tax on their lives. They deserve the same standards of living and care, and the same chance to thrive, as everybody else. This motion is about dealing with the present crisis, which has left so many people unsure of how they will heat their homes, pay for medication or travel to appointments. It is about having a real plan and ambition to make the long-term changes that we need to guarantee people equality. I do not apologise for using that language. The Minister has accused us of using alarmist language. He told us to be careful about using alarmist language when we talk about people choosing between heating and eating. It is not alarmist to the people whose lived experience is choosing between heating and eating. However, I am really glad that the Minister raised the topic of language because in this State we have seen a charitable model of disability dominate policy delivery for people with disabilities. We have just about moved ourselves to a medical model in certain parts of our policy-making for people with disabilities. What we actually need, when we think and talk about disability, is a rights-based model. What that means is that all of us in this country have the right to work, the right to live, the right to privacy and the right to health. When we recognise that we all have those rights, we then identify the shortfalls in certain groups meeting those rights. Then we realise that, as a State, we have an obligation to remove those barriers and to bring people to the same level so that they can access and participate in society in the same way as everybody else. The Minister's comments today are littered with policy after report after consultation. I can tell him that the disability community in Ireland are exhausted and fatigued with consultation, sick to the teeth of hearing about the next report which is going to tell them what they need when they already know what they need. They have been very clear about it and the Social Democrats have been very clear about it. This is a gap and I fully acknowledge that the Government talks about this being a priority. I recognise that the Tánaiste has created the specific group that he has, and that it is reaching into every Department. I recognise all of that, but delivery is not happening. The starkest example of that is budget 2026, in which disabled people were left €1,400 short. They are living that right now. They are living the heating and eating choice. I do not apologise for that language. It is not alarmist when it is lived experience. We know the reasons people with disabilities are more likely to be in poverty. People with disabilities face additional daily costs when it comes to medication, specialist equipment, adaptation of homes and everything they need to be able to live their lives in dignity. We are one of the worst in Europe when it comes to participation of people with disabilities in the labour market, as the Minister has acknowledged. The lives of disabled people in this country are full of additional costs that most of us cannot imagine on a day-to-day basis, and an exclusion from the labour market that makes it even more impossible to survive in dignity. These are the people who have the least power to insulate themselves from this cost-of-living crisis that we are all experiencing, yet this year they are facing the brunt of it. We can do better and we must do better for people with disabilities. This is what we are asking today and every day, and we will continue to fight for as long as it takes to achieve true equality for those among us with disabilities.

It is deeply disappointing that the Government is opposing this motion and I think there are people with disabilities across the country who are going to be very disappointed as well. Our contributions are not alarmist; they are grounded in evidence and research. We know that the annual cost of living with disability is estimated at between €10,000 and €15,000. According to the ESRI, there is a weekly cost of between €488 and €555. A household with a disabled member needs an income that is 52% to 59% greater after tax just to reach the same standard of living as a household without a disabled member. For households with a member who is has severe limitations, the additional cost can be as high as 93%. I want to pass on to the Minister what some people with disabilities have said about their lives and the impact on them. One person said that in some weeks, it is a toss-up between food or bills as there is nothing left. Another person said they are not looking to be a millionaire but looking for security, a home, heat, food, family and not to fight for the basic things. A third person said disabled people are more reliant than ever on their families and their independence is being eroded. In our alternative budget, the Social Democrats proposed an extra €15 per week in disability allowance, an emergency €400 winter cost-of-disability payment, and a permanent cost-of-disability support payment. In the Government's budget, disability allowance went up by just €10 to €256. That is just €520 over a year. The Government failed to provide a permanent cost-of-disability payment, putting it off until 2027. This is inexcusable. The Government may have postponed this measure but people with disabilities cannot postpone their expenses. Its approach still seems to be rooted in charity rather than rights. People with disabilities need clarity and action, not more ambiguity and delay. It is now more than 20 years since the Department of Social Protection commissioned a report on the cost-of-disability payment. That was reaffirmed in the 2021 cost of disability in Ireland research report. How much longer does the Government need? Just this month, the Minister of State, Deputy Emer Higgins, told the Irish Examiner that the practicalities of payment are still being worked out. Acting like a commentator rather than a member of Government, the Minister of State was quoted as saying: What would that payment look like? What rate would it be set at? How would you qualify for it? How would it be paid? Ministers thinking aloud across the pages of newspapers is not one bit helpful. Has no financial planning been undertaken since the cost-of-disability report was published four years ago? People with disabilities do not need more off-the-cuff commentary from Ministers. They need real progress and a permanent cost-of-disability payment. I urge the Minister to reconsider his stance on this, support the motion and provide these basic supports so that people can live decent lives in Ireland because it is not good enough.

I thank the Minister for his statement in response to our motion this morning. I worked in disability services as a social care worker for many years. We have heard many voices, specifically of those with disabilities, come through this morning. I would like to share a common trend among family members of people with disabilities who often shared a consistent experience of having to navigate the mechanisms of the State, the outcomes of which they felt were often down to luck more than design and who, at times, had to show resilience within their family after getting refusal after refusal and having to apply through various mechanisms and fora in order to be able to avail of what essentially are basic services, basic funds and basic grants. It could be made an awful lot easier. The reason I want to share that is that when you draw specific attention to language, all we are trying to do this morning is to represent the voices of those we have heard over recent weeks, recent months and recent years who have said the system is broken. Notwithstanding some of the great work that the Minister has highlighted in his response this morning, we should start from a common place, that, right now, budget 2026 targeted people with disabilities by leaving them with considerably less than before. The Minister mentioned the idea of the cost-of-disability payment being a top priority for him. There is another trend here where disability payments are a priority. Child poverty is a priority. Housing is a priority. Health is a priority. Everything is a priority for this Government but the outcomes are not improving. If anything, what we are seeing is the outcomes in some of these top priority areas disimproving. Then we see the Taoiseach set up a unit within the Department as if that is going to be the silver bullet to change the lived experience of people's lives, whether it is in child poverty or for those who are experiencing disability. As a very constructive proposal this morning, what we have tried to do is present something that is workable and pragmatic but is a necessity. It is not an optional extra; it is a necessity. The Minister is choosing to amend or do away with our motion. That is fine but we sincerely implore the Minister to consider this in the short term while he and his officials work on the cost-of-disability payment for budget 2027. Whatever way, shape or form this looks, it must be brought forward in the next couple of days or weeks to make sure basic services for people with disabilities can be met.

I want to start by thanking the Deputies for bringing forward this motion this morning and giving us a chance to have this important discussion. I want to state, as I have done previously, that disabled people are not disabled by their own bodies, their own neurodiversity or their own intellectual capacity. They are disabled by society - a society that puts barriers in their way to access work, supports and even something simple like public transport. Disabled people face hurdles that able-bodied people could not even begin to imagine. Fair play to disabled people and their advocates because they are getting themselves organised. They are putting themselves onto the agenda and are making their voices heard. They are a powerful lobby. These are people who fight every single day of the week for every shilling, every cent and every tiny little bit of support. These are fighters because the system has made them into fighters. They and their advocates are powerful representatives and they should be listened to. The Minister and his Government talk a lot. We have Cabinet committees, task force reports, etc., but they are light on action. I would have thought that the very least that a decent Government would do in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis is not make things worse for people. Yet, people with disabilities find themselves €1,400 worse off as a direct consequence of the budget. They do make the choice about heating or eating and to charge their mobility or medical devices or pay for their groceries. They are real choices that real people have to make in the here and now. The Minister said in his contribution that we should be extremely careful about alarmist language and that we should not be putting out a misleading and dangerous message that people must choose between food and heating. Those are not my words; those are the words of people with disabilities. They have told us and have told him, if he was willing to listen, that those are the choices that they have to make. Do they want to be in that position? No. Do they want to be in the audiovisual room having to talk about the intimate details of their lives? No. They want to be getting on with living their lives but for them living their lives involves making a choice, in some instances, between heating and eating. That is not alarmist language; that is a fact for people with disabilities. That is how they live their lives. Every single day is a battle. They want the Government to stand up and be on their side. I urge the Minister to support his motion and withdraw his shameful amendment.

This is straightforward. It is not the first time that we have had this discussion. The fact is the Minister has straightforwardly accepted that there is a cost of disability. I can also say that the Government accepted, when it was giving out one-off payments, that in providing a cost-of-disability payment, and for the first time recognising that, it realised there is a huge issue for those who are disabled in relation to the day-to-day cost and the logistics, whether it is the extra cost of transport, availing of healthcare, or a million and one things that we all take for granted that cost a lot more and are a lot more difficult to do. In fairness, the Minister is going to hear an awful lot about a choice between eating or heating because we have heard it directly from those who are impacted by the lack of a payment - up to €1,400 if we compare it with last year. That would be a slash in relation to anybody's means of paying for their needs. People are absolutely at the edge in relation to payments. We have all heard from the wheelchair users who cannot afford to charge their wheelchairs at times. They have to decide on individual payments and on what they can and cannot do. This is straightforward. I commend the work of the Disability Federation of Ireland, DFI, the Irish Wheelchair Association and Access for All on highlighting this issue. I thank the Social Democrats for bringing this motion forward. What we need to see is action. The Minister is doing the right thing in relation to the review process, looking at exactly who gets paid a cost-of-disability payment and looking at the amount it needs to be. That is grand for next year. At the moment, however, there are people who cannot afford to pay their bills. I cannot get away from the idea that some weeks it is a toss up between food or bills as there is nothing left. We know the issues, which I brought up with the Minister previously, that need to be addressed in making it easier for those with a disability to be employed, because the numbers in this State are not up to scratch, and they are improving the WSS, the reasonable accommodations, workability and employability, work and access and so on.

In September of last year, the then Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe, conceded that pulling one-off payments would be difficult. His decision at the time was predicated in part upon inflation continuing to remain around 2%. Those were his own words. In reality, CSO figures now show a 12-month inflation rate of 3.2%. It was a callous and cruel budget that was cut-throat with cost-of-living supports. In defence of his compassionless budget, the Taoiseach acknowledged that these supports have been crucial in responding to the cost-of-living crisis. Does he think the cost-of-living crisis is over? Does he believe that he has solved it? Does he think that the added costs of disability evaporated? He must believe he fixed that also. The Taoiseach, Deputy Micheál Martin, believed that these supports were not fiscally sustainable. Those were his own words. How fiscally sustainable does the Taoiseach believe it is for a disabled person to see their income decreased by €1,400 per year? TDs from Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the so-called Independent lackeys endorsed a heartless budget last October – one that absolutely hammered people with disabilities. This motion offers them the opportunity to purge their contempt. The then Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, said that cutting these payments would be difficult. Paschal showed no difficulty when generously gifting the World Bank €10 million of taxpayers' money. There was no talk of fiscal sustainability then. Paschal does not give a damn. Now the Minister, Deputy Calleary, has the opportunity. Sinn Féin fully supports the motion before the House today, which mandates the Government to restore the €400 emergency winter payment-----

I thank the Deputy.

-----because there is no other way to address and respond to the challenges we face as a society. Every Member of this House can staple their colours to the mast through this motion. Are the members of the Government not concerned that both the ESRI and the PBO predict that poverty will continue to rise for people with disabilities?

I will move on to the next speaker.

Do they want to do something about it?

I call Deputy Newsome Drennan. Deputy Bennett is eating into the time of her own party members.

If so, the Minister must support this motion.

As someone who has spent a significant portion of my adult life working with adults with disabilities, I strongly welcome this motion. I witnessed on a daily basis the financial cost of living with a disability, the relentless extra expenses and the hidden burdens that add up to a reality of constant pressure. Reading this motion reminds me of our first Private Members' business in the Dáil after the budget when we raised this very issue and presented our own solutions. Sadly, the Government parties failed to take any of those proposals on board. Here we are, months later, and the crisis we warned about has come to pass in full. The heightened risk of poverty for those living with a disability is an appalling reflection on the failure of the Minister and his colleagues. Each and every week in this Chamber we raise the case of groups of people who are struggling, who are left behind by the Government, but it seems to fall on deaf ears. Who is this Government championing? Is it those with a disability? Is it those struggling to find a home or to find affordable childcare, or is it the large property developers and multinational corporates like Starbucks and McDonalds? When we look at the measures put in place by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, the latter have received more than generous measures, while the former did not even receive enough to keep up with inflation. The welfare and treatment of our most vulnerable citizens is the mark of society we want to achieve but this Government has decided to subject tens of thousands of people with disabilities and their families to poverty and deprivation. I have heard from far too many people in Carlow and Kilkenny who are experiencing a level of hardship they have never known before because of the Government's failure to listen to the pleas for support. How the Government can stand over this suffering is beyond me. Is it a matter of policy and how the Government views society or is it simply that it is out of touch with ordinary people?

I thank the Deputy. I have five speakers left and nine minutes and 40 seconds. I will allow them all to contribute.

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the motion. I thank the Social Democrats for bringing it forward. People with disabilities are disproportionately at risk of poverty and social exclusion. Households that include people with disabilities require between 41% and 93% extra disposable income to achieve the same standard of living as households with no disabled members. A budget that leaves them significantly - by €1,400 - worse off than the previous year undermines Ireland's obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and deepens inequality. The motion before us speaks to a profound injustice that this Government continues to perpetuate. Last year's cost-of-disability package, though insufficient, has been ripped away. What is offered in budget 2026 is a devastating drop in income for people with disabilities. While Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and their Independent colleagues offer empty election-time promises, their actions abandon people and leave them with impossible choices between heating their home and charging a mobility device, between eating and keeping the lights on. That is their words. We see the hidden poverty in our constituencies on a daily basis: the prepay meter disconnections, the arrears, the children growing up at risk. This is not just policy failure, it is a conscious poverty trap. The Government must deliver an emergency winter payment. It must also deliver a fundamental shift. We need a Government that sees the dignity of disabled people not as a line item to cut but as a responsibility to be upheld. This motion is a step in that direction. I urge people to support it.

I too thank the Social Democrats for this motion. Life is difficult enough for people with disabilities. They spend their life fighting for basic services – OT, speech and language, physiotherapy and mobility equipment. I know parents who have to fundraise for wheelchairs and other equipment for disabled children. Being able to get around is something we take for granted, but people with disabilities have to plan how to get around, be it on a bus, a taxi or a train. When disabled people get older, they have to fight for their independence. They have to wait up to 20 years for a home to suit their needs. Do they really have to struggle now to heat their homes? Is that what we are talking about? The evidence is irrefutable. People living with disabilities live in consistent poverty. I will go back to the Minister's speech. The Minister said he knows the additional costs faced by people with disabilities. On the topic of employment, he said he wants to state his full commitment. On the last page he stated he is pleased to begin this work. How long has he been in power? How long have Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael been in power, yet people are still consistently in poverty? The Minister's statement on the last page is an absolute disgrace. He said we should be extremely careful about using alarmist language. Is he blaming disability groups for being alarmist? Is that what he is saying? They are the ones who are telling us. This is why we have motions. They are telling us. Is the Minister blaming those organisations for being alarmist over €1,400 being cut from the budget? This is an absolute disgrace. Will the Minister withdraw what he said because that is an absolute slur on those organisations who took the time to come in here to give their life experiences?

Budget 2026 was an insult to people with disabilities. All through the winter people have suffered as their income has taken a serious hit. The withdrawal of supports in this year's budget has left people with disabilities worse off by €1,400. This was a shocking betrayal of people with disabilities, who were promised the sun, moon and stars by the Government parties during the general election campaign. It was already difficult enough for people with disabilities to get by. The Disability Federation of Ireland tells us that households with a disabled member require, on average, 50% extra disposable income to achieve the same standard of living as a similar household with no disabled members. Many constituents have been in touch with me outlining the stark impact the withdrawal of support is having on them. The reality is that the Minister's decision to cut essential supports has left disabled people across this State in poverty and having to make the most difficult decisions to get by and get the bills paid when we have rising costs across the board. This is unforgivable. We know that people with disabilities are already disproportionately at risk of poverty and social exclusion, yet the Minister made this choice because the stance of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Independents on disability has been consistently out of touch. They only acknowledge the poverty people with disabilities face at election time when it suits them. The Minister stated that the Government will consider a cost-of-disability payment in next year's budget. How can he seriously suggest that people with disabilities should have to wait for a year - spend a full year in poverty - and then he might fix this problem? The Government must recognise the fact that living with a disability comes with increased costs. People need supports that reflect that in the here and now. I call on the Government not only to support this motion but to act on it and ensure it provides an emergency cost-of-disability payment as soon as possible.

I thank the Social Democrats for this motion. Constituents and disability support groups across County Clare have been contacting me. They are shocked and deeply disappointed that this Government is refusing to call for an emergency winter payment for people with disabilities. They cannot understand how money can be found for developers and for those who are already flush, yet people with disabilities have to make the stark decision to eat or to have heat. The Taoiseach has stated that such a measure is not fiscally sustainable. People have said to me that asking people with disabilities to wait is what is truly unsustainable. They are absolutely right about this. They are not looking for luxuries, they are looking for help to meet essential needs - extra costs for heating and to run specialised life-sustaining equipment. Is that really too much to ask? Just before Christmas on a bitterly cold winter day, I met protesters outside this very Dáíl. One protester said to the crowd with devastating sarcasm, "Is it not great the Government is giving us extra fuel allowance? It is giving me enough to buy firelighters for a fire that I cannot even afford to keep lit." That is the reality - a very stark reality. They have told me the extra €10-a-week would not even come close to covering their real living costs. The message of that protest was simple and shameful: eat or heat. I find that utterly disgraceful. Delaying supports does not save money, it pushes people with disabilities into debt, into loans, into financial holes they may never climb out of. Some are spending their days in local libraries just to stay warm. What kind of way is that for this Government to treat people? I am asking that it does the right thing and supports this motion. People with disabilities deserve dignity, not delay; and certainty, not excuses.

Gabhaim buíochas leis na Daonlathaithe Sóisialta as an rún ríthábhachtach seo a chur os ár gcomhair ar maidin. It is only a couple of months since Sinn Féin brought a similar motion before the Dáil and it speaks volumes that we are back again so soon. It speaks to the tireless work of disability advocates and the dire conditions and desperation people with disabilities are living with. There is no two ways about it; people with disabilities were the biggest losers in budget 2026. Our most vulnerable lost €1,400 of their income while big developers won to the tune of many millions of euro. This is indefensible. Once again, people with disabilities were the sacrificial lambs and the last to benefit from our ballooning national wealth. That €1,400 was precious to households that were already more likely to be fighting poverty before their household income was slashed by this Government in September. Dozens of constituents of mine across Kildare South have been in touch with me sharing their stories. Clare, in Kildare town, is having to choose between heating her home and charging her medical devices. Paul has ended his own physio to fund his son through college and Anne, in Rathangan, is missing routine appointments which she used to attend by taxi so she can afford her weekly shopping. The Government responded to calls for an emergency winter payment by saying it will take care of them next year, basically telling disabled households to put up and shut up and demonstrating how this Government is completely out of touch with how poverty affects people. The disabled community are telling us loud and clear that they cannot wait. People are experiencing acute hardship now. This will continue if we do not take action. The community has no faith left in this Government after the callous hand dealt out to them in October. It is not too late to make this right. I call on the Government to support this motion and introduce a €400 emergency payment. This is not a luxury; it is a necessity.

I thank the Deputy. I will move on to the next speaker for the Labour Party, Deputy Mark Wall.

I thank the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach. I will move our amendment, if that is in order.

The Deputy cannot do so.

I will not move it then. As Labour Party spokesman on social protection and disability, I welcome the opportunity to speak on this very important motion. I sincerely thank colleagues in the Social Democrats for bringing forward this motion. It is very timely given the cold and unpredictable weather we have been experiencing over the past number of weeks. The Labour Party has an amendment to this motion to ensure all disabled citizens are captured within the motion. I welcome the spirit of this motion, and our amendment would ensure that all disabled citizens were included. The Labour Party amendment would extend the emergency payment to older people with a disability in receipt of a State pension. This amendment would also ensure that any future cost-of-disability payment supports for older people whose disability ceases to be recognised on the current social protection system once they begin to receive a State pension after moving from one of the listed disability payments. Our amendment also seeks to substantially increase the income disregard for the disability allowance and the blind pension in recognition of the higher costs of living and the 25% increase in the national minimum wage since it was last increased to only €165 in 2022. I have continually raised the ongoing cost-of-living crisis and its impact on people with disabilities. The Cost of Disability in Ireland report from Indecon shows that people with a disability face extra cost from €9,000 to over €12,000 a year. These costs are quickly absorbed by inadequate social welfare payments like the disability allowance. I am very disappointed by the lack of progress this Government has made in progressing a cost-of-disability payment. It cannot continue to put this on the long finger. Disabled people are having to make very tough choices such as whether they can turn on the heating or have something to eat. Budget 2026 marked a decline in the standard of living for many disabled people. The past number of budgets provided access to the disability support grant, a once off cost-of-disability payment that Government paid three years in a row. However, the cost of disability is not a once off. The failure to continue this payment, even on a temporary basis while a new payments was designed, has left disabled people losing nearly €1,400 a year. Given the Minister's update this morning on the disability support grant, why did the Government choose to get rid of these short-term payments in the absence of this new payment and it coming into force? Nobody has that type of money lying around. For some households, it is the difference of being above the poverty line and whether the Government likes it or not, that is a fact. I have counted at least eight programme for Government commitments to addressing the cost of disability, including a new payment and extending free travel to children who receive the domiciliary care allowance. However, the Government has not yet addressed a single one of these commitments. What it has done is continually increased costs faced by these households. The Government favoured a VAT cut rate of nearly €700 million for fast-food chains that were already making millions of euro in profits while disabled people and their families can barely afford to keep the lights on. This VAT rate cut could have funded the new cost-of-disability payment starting at €25 per week with money still left over to do more for these households. To add insult to injury, the Government provided a tax cut to developers amounting to over €500 million. This is the money that could have been used to increase the income disregard for the disability allowance to €250, increase the funding for the employability and workability programmes to support people with disabilities in the work place, and provide 1,000 extra places on the wage subsidy scheme, restoring the link to 70% of the national minimum wage and introduce reforms to improve the scheme. Implementing these measures would have still leftover finance to provide even more supports for people, like increasing the income threshold for the medical card or cutting public hospital parking charges in half for those who need them most. I want to address the Minister's speech. The Cathaoirleach Gníomhach and the Minister will not be surprised that I will bring up the community welfare service once again. I heard the Minister speaking this morning on the heating supplement that the community welfare service administers, and he said he would share details with all the Members of this House. Does this Government, the Minister and everybody here not realise the problems that so many people have contacting their community welfare officer? Does the Minister not know the problems those with a disability have in filling out such forms and getting bank statement after bank statement for a system that, I will say again, has lost its personal touch and has become centralised? As part of this motion from the Social Democrats, I am asking the Government to give a commitment that the heating supplement will be properly advertised. As somebody who has worked in local government and at national level for almost 25 years, it beggars belief that there is a payment that so many people know so little about. Will the Government make it easier to apply for that payment and will this payment be judged sympathetically by the community welfare service? Will the need for form after form for such a payment be reduced? At the end of the day, this heating supplement could actually make a difference and is part of what this motion calls for today. It could make a difference as to whether a person turns on their heating or not. It could make a difference to the quality of life for so many disabled people. The Minister mentioned that 692 people are in receipt of the heating supplement yet he also mentioned 231,000 people are in receipt of disability allowance and 170,000 people are in receipt of carers allowance. That is 692 people versus 231,000 and 170,000 people. The Cathaoirleach Gníomhach must get my drift that if the Government is serious about helping people with disabilities, it now has an outcome and needs to share, advertise and allow people get the heating supplement urgently so those with disabilities can have a quality of life and not just the 692 people for whom I am sure it is very welcome. I ask the Minister of State to bring this message back to the Minister, Deputy Calleary, and to ask the Government to make a difference. The heating supplement will make a difference if it is offered to those who need it the most. Like other colleagues, in my office in Kildare South – I am sure it is the same for the Minister of State in his office – I receive calls from people on a daily basis who tell me that they simply cannot turn on their heating. What is proposed here is a solution that the Government could introduce straight away. I will conclude with a few lines from a constituent whose story I shared previously in this House and with whom I have been in regular contact in the meantime. What I am about to read into the record accurately sums up what the disabled community thinks of the Government’s actions. The person in question wrote: I do not believe that they will put finance into services that matter most, even those that people will benefit from. It is just words to distract the public and kick the can down the road. That is the type of sentiment I get day in, day out in my office. Why are people with disabilities always the ones who have to fight? Disabled people state that they need more than words; they need action. I have given the Government an action it could take. A total of 692 people are in receipt of the grant in question, but almost 500,000 people may need it. That is the action that needs to be taken. As we always say in this House, action speaks louder than words. Disabled people are tired. That is the sentiment I am getting from them. They are tired of fighting for their children and for themselves. The Government’s inaction has forced that tiredness upon them. They need to see action now, and they need payment. I welcome the fact that the Social Democrats tabled this motion. We support it, but we have tabled an amendment to it. We ask that the Government withdraws its amendment and supports those with disabilities once and for all.

“My life is a balance between heating my home or feeding my children”. That is not exaggeration or scaremongering. Rather, those are the precise words - I took them down when she spoke at the briefing in the audiovisual room - of a disabled woman who is facing the impact of these horrific and cruel cuts from the Government. To attempt to shame the Opposition for speaking this truth and reflecting this reality and say that we are scaremongering in some way is very poor form on the part of the Government. This is the life people are living. I thank the Social Democrats for bringing forward this important motion. I do not thank the Government for bringing forward its shameful countermotion. The Government likes to talk a lot about targeting supports. That is its big talking point on this issue. It is targeting all right. Incredibly, the Government, during a time when it has a significant budget surplus, has targeted disabled people. There is no question about that. It has targeted disabled people for particularly cruel cuts. We know that, incredibly, the budget made almost everyone worse off. People who do not own big fast food restaurants, who have not developed a bunch of apartments or who are not big landlords have basically been made them worse off. The budget made the poorest even more worse off, and it made disabled people the worst off. It has been said again and again but cannot be said enough that the disabled support grant has been cut by €400, that the living alone allowance lump sum of €200 is being cut, that the fuel allowance is being reduced for disabled people with a net loss of €160 and that the October double payment of €254 and the electricity credits of €250 have been cut. The total value of cuts for disabled people is €1,404. That is utterly shameful. It is worth noting – I always try to make this point when we are talking about this issue – that in the context the same budget in which the Government took such a cruel approach to disabled people, Google walked in the front door of the Department of Finance and had a meeting with the Minister for Finance in which it asked that the research and development tax credit be increased by 5%, from 30% to 35%. What did the Government say? It said, “Yes, no problem. There you go. Here is €300 million”. That is public money going to Google when it would cost less than that to implement what is being asked for here, namely an emergency winter disability payment for those people who have been affected by these awful cuts. We know - the Government knows too - that the cost of having a disability in this country in 2021 was over €10,000. Today, it is around €15,000. While the official at risk of poverty rate is 32.5%, when the cost of disability is added, the risk of poverty increases to between 65% and 76%. We know that 39% of those who are unable to work due to disability are living in enforced deprivation, which is quite grinding poverty. We know we have the worst rates of employment of disabled people of any country in the European Union. It is excellent and inspiring to see the Disability Federation of Ireland, the Irish Wheelchair Association and Access for All Ireland working together to put this issue on the agenda and put pressure on the Government. On 9 December, despite a storm, they were outside the Dáil to protest the Government’s cuts. They said then that the Government is forcing them into a choice between heating and eating. They warned that people could be in an absolutely desperate situation and could die as a consequence. Did the Government listen? No. That is why we need to build this movement even further. Disabled people need to be at the centre of that movement, fighting for an affordable Ireland. We need to be on the streets, supporting disabled people and demanding budget measures that do not enrich the already rich and big corporations but, rather, give ordinary people a break. The very minimum of what is needed is to say to the Government to stop its attacks on disabled people and stop forcing disabled people even deeper into poverty. The Government must give an emergency winter payment to combat the hardship disabled people are facing today. After that, we must implement a permanent and decent cost-of-disability support payment, as we have included in our budgets for multiple years in a row. The people cannot wait. That is what the Government is saying to them, however. It tells them to wait until the next budget and not to worry because it will deal with it then. They cannot wait because the cuts have been implemented now and the cost-of-living crisis is now. They need support right now.

It is despicable that people with disabilities lost €1,400 in the budget. To hit the most vulnerable in that way while giving massive additional handouts to some of the most profitable companies in the world in the form research and development tax credits says everything people need to know about the priorities of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and their supposedly Independent allies. The disability community is very angry. It will take to the streets in a demonstration on 28 February co-organised by the Cost of Living Coalition, with which many of the Opposition parties are involved, and trade unions, unemployed organisations and a range of civil society organisations. I urge people who are rightly furious about what has been done by this Government to people with disabilities to get out onto the streets in large numbers in order to mobilise and demand. What we are discussing reflects what the disability community is fighting for. I commend the Social Democrats on putting the motion forward. I am sure the Social Democrats would be the first to acknowledge that the motion contains the demands being made by the disability community. It is demanding these things and it is very angry. I wish to convey that to the Government, which is will be facing a storm if it does not meet those demands. The disability community has insisted that there be a protest. It is not that we are suggesting a protest. Rather, the community is demanding one. It is going to mobilise, and I hope there will be a massive protest to send a message to this Government that disabled people want the emergency payment of €400. It is absolute pittance compared with what the Government has given to developers and big, obscenely profitable multinationals. The cost-of-disability payment is something for which we in People Before Profit have been advocating for many years. That is in recognition of the enormous additional costs of disability. They are also evidenced based. People with disabilities are not making this up. I credit my colleague in Sinn Féin Deputy Louise O’Reilly, who she pointed out to me that the Minister stated that the Opposition should be careful about using inflammatory suggestions to the effect that there is a trade-off between heating and eating. What flipping planet is the Minister living on that he would say that. It is absolutely outrageous. Does he know that about 500,000 households are suffering from energy poverty and that people with disabilities suffer disproportionately as a result of the things to which I refer? This is not rhetoric from the Opposition; these are evidence-based assertions regarding the facts. Any TD who is in touch with people in their area and who talks to people with disabilities knows that people on lower incomes and those with disabilities, with all the additional costs they have, amounting to between €12,000 and €15,000 a year, are disproportionately hit by energy poverty. It is a very real choice for people with disabilities to have to make the decision to turn off the heating. If they do not do so, they will not have enough to pay for groceries or pay their bills. What the Minister said was just extraordinary. The Government should do the right thing, reverse the disgraceful attacks on the incomes of those with disabilities that the it instigated in the budget and, finally, recognise the right of people with disabilities to real equality. Real equality means giving them a cost-of-disability payment to allow them to participate equally in our society.

Last year, I had Maurice Noonan and Eilish Sheehy up from Limerick. Both are wheelchair users. They were looking for the simplest of things, namely access to buildings in order that they can have a normal life. Both of these people work. When we look at the measures taken in the budget, we can see that: the disability support grant was removed, resulting in a loss of €400; the living alone allowance was removed, resulting in a loss of €200; the fuel allowance was reduced to €160; the October double payment was removed, resulting in a loss of €254; and electricity credit was removed, resulting in a €250 loss. The total amount of those losses is €1,404. This is outside of the impact of cost-of-living increases. The loss in question affects for people with disabilities who work and those who do not work. The Government reduced the USC but never changed the tax base. This means that people who are working are paying more tax. That is for everyone, whether they have a disability or not. People are paying more tax at a time when there are overruns in the HSE and in the various Departments. There are billions of euro in overruns, but the Government cannot provide for those who are the most vulnerable. The people I know who have disabilities, whether they are working or not, want to be looked at as ordinary people, but they also want equality from a work perspective and from a quality of life perspective. This means that if they go out, they want equality. Yet, the Government has done what I have just outlined. This is not what Irish people were ever about. We look after everyone, but we are not looking after people with disabilities or the elderly. All the things that we have worked for all our lives have been ignored by the Government. I put it to the Minister of State, Deputy Canney, that we need to make sure this is addressed, and quickly.

I thank the Social Democrats for tabling the motion. We fully support it. People with disabilities face extra costs every day. These are costs they cannot avoid. When winter hits, the pressure becomes even greater, especially with heating and energy bills rising again. Right now, households across the country are under serious strain. Energy costs are still one of the biggest drivers of hardship. For disabled people, those costs do not just stay the same when prices go up; they get worse. The supports they rely on do not stretch far enough and the bills keep climbing. That is why we support what the motion is seeking, namely targeted and practical help that people can feel the impact of straight away. A once-off winter payment would be direct and focused and would go to people who are carrying unavoidable extra burdens. The Government keeps saying it wants to target the resources. Here is a clear opportunity to do exactly that . It should not stop at one payment. We need to move away from those ad hoc crisis-driven reactions and finally put in place a proper permanent support framework that reflects the real documented cost of living with a disability in this country. If the Government will not back a once-off payment now, at the very least it should publish a clear timeline for permanent measures. People do not need headlines about proposals; they need a date, decisions and delivery. This is not an abstract policy debate. Across Cork, Limerick, Galway and Roscommon, families are asking the same questions: "Where is the support coming from and when is it coming?". We will back any measures that ease pressures this winter and we will keep pushing for permanent solutions.

We have all seen both the impact of the cost-of-living crisis and the increase in the cost of living. When we go to the fuel tank at home or the petrol pump or when we go to Dunnes or SuperValu, we are seeing it. It is doubly affecting those people who are the most forgotten and most vulnerable in our society, namely those with a disability or an invalidity. The people who are choosing between heating and eating have been described as being obliged to decide whether to pay their fuel bills. I had a carer on the phone to me the other day. She stated that she visits a gentleman and that he is wrapped up in six blankets and has one bar of the fire on because he is afraid to turn on his heating. He is afraid of the postman delivering the next bill that will come in from the ESB or Bord Gáis. This is how difficult it is for people. The Minister of State has a Government report which tells us that the cost of living for people with disabilities is higher than average. They are obliged to meet additional costs of between €8,700 and €12,000. If we take into account index-linking, then it is probably €10,000 to €15,000, particularly in view of the costs people currently face. Deputy Collins is right that while once-off solutions are great - and it is great to get headlines - we have to start index-linking support for people with disabilities, both young and old, for the most vulnerable and for the forgotten people of this country, including the elderly and widows and widowers. This is not an elderly thing; it is about people who have either an invalidity or a disability. Those who are rearing families are finding it very difficult, and the Minister of State is not listening.

I support the motion. Those with disabilities are the most vulnerable people in our society. That is a fact. Right across Mayo and the rest of Ireland, there are people with disabilities who are struggling. In many cases, they are struggling physically. They are struggling to overcome all of the barriers they encounter in daily life. Now, increasingly, they are struggling with an enormous burden financially as well. The financial burden on so many vulnerable people is incredible. The Indecon report of 2021 outlined that the cost of disability, which is the additional cost for a person, is €12,000 annually. When indexed against inflation, the amount involved rises to €15,000. Despite that and, what the Government said during the general election campaign to the effect that it was going to prioritise those with disabilities - it is even in the programme for Government - what has actually happened is that supports for people with disabilities have been cut by up to €1,400. People with disabilities are significantly less well off this year than they were last year, despite all the rhetoric. That is why I am so disappointed. The motion before us, which is a good one, will provide practical support for people with disabilities. It offers, perhaps, a very small glimmer of hope during this very difficult winter for those individuals. The Government, however, has completely erased the motion. That is extraordinary. When they reflect on their political careers, will the Minister of State and the members of the Government be able to say that they supported the most vulnerable in our society, the people who could not necessarily always advocate for themselves or those who are struggling at home? The motion would offer people practical support in terms of a payment this winter and a recognition of the fact that there is a cost of disability, that this cost should be recognised by the State and that support should be available to them.

With one in five disabled people living in consistent poverty, which is almost four times the national average, and with about two in five experiencing enforced deprivation, this cold and constantly wet winter paints nothing but a picture of cold homes, skipped meals and lives lived in constant financial battles for the people who are least well positioned to fight those battles. We know the need for a cost-of-disability payment was identified over 20 years ago, in 2004, reaffirmed in the Indecon report in 2021 and promised again in the current programme for Government, but there is still no permanent disability payment, no delivery and no timeline. People have been left in the lurch waiting. Everyone's costs have risen but their costs, in particular, have risen and their incomes are falling. The Government's own research shows that the extra cost of living with disability can reach almost €15,000 a year when indexed link to inflation, yet instead of easing that burden, budget 2026 cut disabled people's incomes by an estimated €1,400. The €400 emergency winter payment being called for today would provide some immediate relief to those who need it most, the people who are disproportionately affected by high energy bills, food price inflation and housing costs because they spend more time at home and face unavoidable disability-related expenses. If the Government wants to do what it says about targeting resources where they are needed, this is one place to start. It is exactly that and it would cost €124 million, which is half the amount of money wasted on the budget giveaway to developers for apartments that are already built. It is unfortunate that we need to deliver this emergency assistance that disabled people urgently deserve now. I urge the Government to allocate this payment on a once-off basis pending the introduction of a permanent needs-based allowance. We have to take a holistic view of people with disabilities regarding job opportunities, how incomes can be increased and how costs can be cut overall. Above all, we need a regular income that reflects the additional cost for disabled people and this once-off payment has to come in this year.

I thank the Social Democrats for bringing forward this motion, which is very important. We all know that people with a disability have the greatest need to be looked after. I honestly believe that people with a disability who are living on their own should be looked after more than anyone else because they face all the costs of keeping the house and trying to keep themselves warm. We all know that since Bord na Móna closed down, the cost of electricity has gone up day by day. The regulator is not doing his job. Different energy companies are putting up electricity prices at different rates, and we cannot understand that. At one time, as the others were putting them up, one company actually put them down. I cannot understand what is going on there and I do not think the Government understands either. The regulator needs to be more prominent and active. I know what it means to have a disability as my grandfather spent 29 years in a wheelchair. I remember him, from when I was a young fellow, and how hard it was for him to manage at that time. I understand that it is harder for people with a disability to live compared to people who are mobile and do not have a disability. I often see how Kerry County Council revamps some of its social housing. It puts in heat pumps and then we see the exorbitant bills that people get for electricity. I do not know why this is happening. It is supposed to be cost-effective but it is a fact that people get exorbitant bills and get into serious trouble. People whose houses were redone late last year already have savage bills. I know that every one of us has different priorities. We saw yesterday evening that Ireland is contributing to a €90 billion loan to Ukraine to help it with its energy. We must look after our own people at home first and foremost. People in Ireland are our priority. The cost of living is going up every day in one way or another. People living on their own are really struggling and they have to get different payments to try to help them along and help from organisations like the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. But for these organisations, some of these people would not manage at all. We need to do more for our people with disabilities. Many of them are afraid to even light the fire because they are so frightened about this. They are upset with this worry about climate change. They feel guilty if they light the fire and many of them do not have the fire to light. People in social homes that been revamped and fitted with heat pumps are getting savage bills. The Minister must go after the regulator and give people confidence. They do not have confidence in what the regulator has been doing. We need to bring down the cost of the electricity. I do not believe it is fair that it has risen day by day with no checks on how it is going to be managed or curtailed. The regulator is simply not doing his job. I appeal to the Minister to do something for people with disabilities, especially those living on their own who are finding it difficult to survive. The word is that Exchequer funding and taxes are up, so I am appealing to the Minister to do something for these people who genuinely need a bit of help and are waiting for it. They are depending us to ensure that they get something.

I thank all the Deputies for their contributions to this debate. While the Government has opposed this motion and tabled an amendment to it, that does not mean that we do not recognise the difficulties and additional costs that disabled people face. We are very aware of those costs. Our determination to assist people with those costs is reflected in the improvements we have made to disability support schemes in recent years and our commitments to further improvements. We are committed to introducing an annual cost-of-disability support payment. We will do this over the lifetime of this Government. Through the strategic focus network summit, we will work with disabled people, their advocates and representatives in developing a way forward. I am pleased to say that this work is progressing. As the Minister clearly stated in his opening remarks, he will bring forward proposals in the first half of this year on the cost of disability. It is a priority for budget 2027. It is important to emphasise that the Government remains committed to continuing its long-standing practice of consultation and close engagement with stakeholders and disability representative groups. It is important to stress again that nobody in Ireland needs to go without food or heating for financial reasons.

People are.

The Department's community welfare system is available to provide financial support for these essentials. The additional needs payment and the heat supplement exist for precisely that purpose. As a TD, I am acutely aware of that. People are getting support that way. We have to be very careful not to frighten people by putting out messages about people having to choose between food or heating their homes.

That is what they have to do.

Supports are in place for the people who need them. It is up to us as public representatives to direct people to those supports when we know they are struggling. Opposition Deputies had their chance to speak. It is called respect and democracy. The Minister spoke about the Government's commitment to introducing the annual cost-of-disability support scheme. This is incredibly important but is just one piece in the jigsaw. The programme for Government and the national human rights strategy for disabled people include a whole range of commitments for disabled people. We have committed to reforming the disability allowance payment and removing anomalies in the current means test for that payment. The Department of Social Protection is conducting a review of means testing generally across the schemes, as has been requested in the House. We will be guided by the outcome of that review. We are committed to progressively increasing weekly disability payments. We have been doing this, including in the recent budget in which we increased the personal rates for qualified adults and child support payments. To ensure that ongoing medical assessments are not carried out in respect of people with lifelong conditions that are not going to change, we will examine the ability to work criteria for certain payments. The issues faced by disabled people cut across government, not just one Department. That is why the national human rights strategy for disabled people is a key focus. It adopts a whole-of-government approach, with individual Departments and State agencies responsible for planning and delivering the commitments that come under their remit under five key pillars, including employment. We all know that many disabled people face barriers in the workplace and when looking for employment. We want to address those barriers. The Department of Social Protection, through its nationwide network of Intreo centres, provides employment services for jobseekers. In line with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, these mainstream services are available to disabled people. More tailored supports are also offered, in particular, EmployAbility offers specialised employment services to people with disabilities. It can help people find work through the job matching services and offer ongoing in-work support to employees and employers. There is a now a designated disability employment personnel officer in 62 Intreo offices. We are promoting training initiatives to raise awareness and understanding of disabilities among Intreo staff generally. In July 2022, the Department launched the early engagement scheme. This scheme proactively invites people to talk about their employment ambitions with Intreo staff and then helps them achieve their goals through the Department's employment training support. Taking part is voluntary. In December 2023, a new employment programme under the new European Social Fund Plus funding was announced. WorkAbility: Inclusive Pathways to Employment Programme aims to support about 13,000 disabled people progress their training and employment ambitions through 57 local, regional and national organisations. The programme runs from January 2024 to December 2028 and the experience to date has been very positive. Funding is also provided for GetAHEAD and the Willing Able Mentoring programmes to help people with disabilities transition from education to work. GetAHEAD works to upskill graduates with disabilities, with information sessions and training events. Willing Able Mentoring provides mentored and paid work placements for graduates with disabilities. The Minister, Deputy Calleary, has committed to expanding and building on successful programmes, such as WorkAbility, EmployAbility and the new work and access programme, to support people with disabilities into employment. Budget 2026 provided for an expansion of the wage subsidy scheme and an increase in the payment rates. These positive measures build on the other recent improvements to the schemes, such as the reduction in the number of hours, from 21 to 15, for work. There are already arrangements in place whereby when a former disability allowance customer's employment ceases or their hours are significantly reduced within 12 months of the termination of their disability allowance, it is open to that person to contact the Department to have their payment reinstated without the need to make a new application. These requests are read within 48 hours of receipt and are fast-tracked back into payment from there. We are committed to further improving the position in this regard. We are also extending the back to work family dividend to people with children who are moving off disability allowance or the blind pension and into employment. This will ease the transition over a two-year period. We also work with employers and across government to improve employment for disabled people. Secondary benefits are of great support in assisting people with additional costs. The Government is focused on heating costs today. Budget 2026 increased the rate of fuel allowance by €5 per week. This will provide an additional €140 to people during the annual fuel season. Fear of losing secondary benefits can also be a very significant concern for people when they are considering taking up or increasing their employment. That is why it is very important for us to introduce measures whereby recipients of disability allowance or blind pension will be able to retain their fuel allowance payment for up to five years after moving into employment. There are already arrangements in place for the retention of certain secondary benefits when a person comes off a disability payment and into employment. A person can retain eligibility for the free travel scheme for five years if they move into work from disability payments such as the disability allowance, the invalidity pension, the partial capacity benefit and the disablement benefit along with incapacity supplements. In addition, a person who is receipt of certain social welfare payments, such as the disability allowance, for 12 consecutive months may retain their medical card for three years after moving into employment. In the work we are doing now on the cost of disability, it is important to remember that we are building on the supports already available and the improvements that have been made, particularly in recent years. I will make a comment on what I heard in the Chamber. People are calling for permanent solutions to this problem and that is what we are all about. One-off payments are fine, but they give no certainty for the future for people with disabilities. We need to have long-term benefits. The Minister for Social Protection and all of us in government remain committed to continuing the range of supports available to disabled people under review to ensure they are meeting our objective of improving outcomes for disabled people, their families and their communities. I thank the Deputies who brought forward this motion and all the Deputies who contributed to the debate.

I thank everyone who contributed to the discussion and my colleagues, Deputies Quaide and Hayes, for bringing forward the motion and all the work they did on it. I first want to address the very serious comments made by the Minister, Deputy Calleary, earlier on. He said he did not want a misleading or dangerous message going out that people must choose between food and heating. These comments show how grossly out of touch with reality the Minister is. It is very disturbing that he does not realise what is actually going on. Indeed, the comments he made afterwards that he is going to get his Department to get onto the disability organisations that are talking about the reality faced by disabled people to try to get them to change what they are saying is-----

I did not say that. I said we would provide the information on the supports that are available.

If there is any implication of getting onto them to-----

There is no such implication.

I am glad the Minister clarified that. However, his comments are nonetheless very disturbing. They do not show a knowledge of the realities that are faced by disabled people due to the Government's decision to cut the incomes of disabled people by €1,400 in the budget. That is an absolutely unforgivable decision on any scale and is utterly unnecessary at a time when we have a budget surplus running into billions of euro. It was a cruel and heartless decision. I have a question for every Government Minister and backbench TD. When they got involved in politics and first ran for elected office, did they ever envisage a time when they would be part of a Government with billions of euro in budget surpluses that would cut the incomes of disabled people by €1,400? To be fair, I cannot imagine they ever envisaged such a situation, ever signed up for it or would have ever have supported it. Why are we now in a situation where that is exactly what is happening? They voted through a budget that cuts the income of disabled people by €1,400. When there is a modest proposal for an emergency winter payment to take some of the pain out of that, for just €400 per person, they do not support that proposal. Why are they doing this? Why will they not now make a stand in support of disabled people who do not want to be in this situation of effectively reaching out to the Government and crying out for this emergency winter payment measure? They want to be able to participate fully in Irish society, the same as anybody else. They do not want to be in this situation. It is not too late for the Government to reduce its cruel and heartless decision. I call on it do that now.

I also thank my colleagues, Deputies Quaide and Hayes, for bringing this motion forward. Politics is all about choices. This Government made a choice in the budget to cut payments for people with a disability while it gave a VAT cut of €390 million to investor funds and developers. Right now, disabled people are struggling to pay the cost of living, including the costs of heating, food, and charging mobile equipment and wheelchairs, yet the Government refuses to implement our very straightforward proposal for a €400 emergency payment. It has the budget surplus. Why will it not ensure disabled people can turn on their heat this winter without worry or fear? The Taoiseach said the emergency cost-of-disability payment was not fiscally sustainable. What is not sustainable is disabled people freezing in their homes. This is supposed to be a republic based on equality and social justice. For disabled people and carers, this is a republic in name only. These are the most vulnerable people, yet the Government gives hundreds of millions of euro to wealthy investor funds while cutting the payments for disabled people. The Minister's statement says it all. It is absolutely disgraceful that he said we should be extremely careful about our alarmist language and should not be putting out anything that is misleading. I ask him to withdraw that. Who is doing the misleading? Is it the Irish Wheelchair Association? Today, the Irish Wheelchair Association made a very clear statement that people with disabilities are choosing between eating, heating and covering basic costs. The Minister is so disconnected. That he could make his statement shows how disconnected and out of touch the Government is. I am utterly shocked. The statement implies the Government has access to the funds to make the payments if it wanted to make them. What is happening is the Government’s fault. It is gaslighting the public and disabled people, denying them their reality. It is saying they are not actually suffering from a cost-of-living crisis or facing these choices. They are facing these choices. This is their lived reality. I am really shocked that the Minister stood up here today and made the statement about misleading and about dangerous messages to the effect that people must choose between food and heating. I am not sure the Minister actually thought through the significance of his statement. It is one of the most profoundly hurtful and disconnected statements I have heard a Minister make about people with disabilities. It implies they are essentially making up the assertion that they are choosing between eating and heating. I am shocked. I ask the Minister to withdraw his statement and apologise for making it.

I thank all the Deputies who spoke in support of this motion and also those who did not speak but who I know support it. Regardless, I am very disappointed by the Government’s response. I know I am not alone and that I speak for tens of thousands of disabled people when I say it is a great shame that the Government has not sought to support them adequately this winter. The Minister spoke of a supplementary welfare scheme totalling 3,000 recipients in 2025. This motion affects ten times that number, namely 310,000, so the Government should do better. This is my first Private Members’ motion in this House, having watched many others. I was not hopeful that the Government would relent on an Opposition motion. I was disappointed by its response but not surprised. It raises the question as to when the Government will respond to the urgent needs of disabled people. How many briefings for TDs must be held? How many committee rooms must be filled with ordinary people forced to ask for help? How many motions, votes or speeches are needed? What will it take to break through the callousness of a Government that would leave disabled people cold, hungry and impoverished? What should I tell them about their Government? What defence is there for neglect? Government is not easy in any country and I do not doubt the sincerity or good intentions of anyone in this House who comes in every day to work on behalf of his or her constituents, but surely it does not sit well with anyone here, in government or opposition, that those outside this House in poverty and deprivation are reliant on the very privileged few who sit here dry and warm. There is an enormous privilege associated with debating motions like this one and voting on the laws that govern our country. There is also an enormous responsibility. Hundreds of thousands of people are struggling with the choice between heat and food, and between their children’s needs and their own. I am referring to those in arrears on their electricity bills, those who scour supermarket shelves for the best deals on food, those who in record numbers have sought help from the Society of St.Vincent de Paul to meet their basic needs, and others. I am so conscious that there are too many in this country who do without and who are not given the immense privilege that I and everyone else in this House have been granted. That is frightening but it is not alarmist, dangerous or misleading, unless the Minister wants to accuse the Society of St. Vincent de Paul of being misleading. I am referring to the reality on the ground. It is the reality this Government has designed. I find it hard to wrap my head around the fact that the Government’s answer to this motion is "No". I ask it to consider its great privilege in holding the purse strings of this country and passing the laws that direct where they are loosened, and, perhaps, to consider that this great privilege carries a responsibility to those who are vulnerable outside this Chamber and that there is no better example of these people than those with disabilities. Is the Government so distrustful of the Opposition that even when it tables constructive motions – motions aligned with the programme for Government, motions that are fiscally sound and motions targeted at the most vulnerable – it will not relent? Has Irish politics come to leaving disabled people impoverished, because it was not the Government’s idea? What does the Dáil do with that reality? What does the electorate do with that reality? Did people really vote for a Fianna Fáil that leaves disabled people in poverty and cuts their incomes? Is that really the character of our country? Somehow, knowing many voters, I think not. I think I know the great character of the great people of this country and think they would be ashamed of how the Government will vote tonight. The Government should be ashamed too.

In accordance with Standing Order 85(2), the division is deferred until the weekly division time this evening.