2026-01-15

11. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Social Protection when he will introduce a permanent cost-of-disability payment as promised in the programme for Government. [2794/26]

The programme for Government promises an annual cost-of-disability support payment, suggesting that it will be incrementally increased. Instead of introducing that in the last budget, the Government introduced an incredible series of cruel cuts, totalling over €1,400 for disabled people. When is the Minister going to right this wrong? What level of payment is he going to introduce? When is he going to introduce this annual cost-of-disability payment?

The Department of Social Protection provides a range of income support payments for disabled people. There are approximately 231,000 recipients of disability income support payments, amounting to an estimated expenditure of €3.24 billion in 2025. The Government recognises the significant additional costs that disabled people face in their daily lives and is committed to improving outcomes for disabled people by introducing permanent measures. That is why the programme for Government includes a range of commitments to support disabled people. Our programme for Government commitments will be advanced over the lifetime of the Government, having regard to the overall policy and budgetary context. The programme for Government commits to introducing a permanent annual cost-of-disability support payment. My Department will lead a strategic focus network, with the involvement of other relevant Departments and agencies, as a commitment under the national human rights strategy for disabled people. The work of this network, which will include disabled people and their advocates, will inform the approach to be taken in delivering on the programme for Government commitment. My officials have been asked to expedite this work with a view to bringing a proposal to the Government in the first half of this year. Officials have already held meetings with a number of organisations to discuss the possible structure and content of the strategic focus network on the cost of disability. My officials met a number of organisations on 2 December at my Department's disability consultative forum, at which the cost-of-disability strategic focus network was the main agenda item. A meeting with the Disabled Persons Organisations Network is scheduled for Friday, 23 January. The views of disabled people and all relevant research, such as the Indecon report and the more recent ESRI report, will be considered by my Department when progressing this work. To reiterate what I said earlier, we will also be having public consultation where we look forward to views from across the House in relation to what the permanent cost-of-disability payment should look like.

It says a lot about the priorities of the Government that it can have fast-tracking of VAT cuts for fast food giants and developers whereas, although it has this on-the-paper commitment to an annual cost-of-disability payment, the payment does not come in. Instead, the Government cuts disabled people's income substantially. We know and the Government acknowledges - it has commissioned the report itself - that it costs a lot of money to be disabled in this country. Adjusted for inflation, the Indecon report states it is between about €10,000 and €15,000 a year. It means an extra €500 a week. That is how much disabled people need to come close to a normal standard of living. The rate of enforced deprivation for disabled people who are unable to work is massive at 39%. The rate of consistent poverty is one in five. We have the lowest rate in the entire European Union of disabled people who are in work. The Government had a €400 lump sum disability payment last year. That was a drop in the ocean. Far from increasing it as promised, however, the Government actually abolished it completely and then cut a whole series of other payments, putting people into even more dire poverty. That needs to be reversed immediately.

We are currently providing 231,000 people across the country with a disability income support payment, with an expenditure of €3.24 billion in 2025. There are a number of significant measures in budget 2026. We have included a €10 increase in the weekly rate of payment, which would bring the personal rate of payment to €254 per week from this month. That is a €51 increase to weekly income support payments since budget 2021. There have been the highest ever increases in the child support payment, with an increase of €16 to €78 for children aged 12 or over and of €8 to €58 for children under 12. There has been a €20 increase in the rate of domiciliary care allowance, bringing that rate to €380 per month from 1 January. We have also made changes to those moving from disability allowance to take up work so that they will be allowed to retain the fuel allowance payment. The budget 2026 allocation of €3.8 billion for the Department of Children, Disability and Equality for disability services in 2026 represents another significant investment. We are prioritising the work on a permanent cost-of-disability payment. I look forward to views from across the House as to who should get that and what the rate should be. The work on that is already under way.

If the Minister wants to quote payments, we can quote payments. The Irish Wheelchair Association, Access for All Ireland and the Disability Federation of Ireland have done very good work in making people aware of the cruel cuts that the Government has introduced in the last budget. The disability support grant was €400 previously. It has been removed, meaning a loss of €400. The living alone allowance saw a loss of €200. The fuel allowance saw a loss of €160. The October double payment saw a loss of €254. The loss of the electricity credit was another loss of €250. This is a total net loss for disabled people of €1,404. There was a powerful briefing in the audiovisual room yesterday, where we heard from all these organisations and from disabled people about the extreme crisis that they were in. One woman said her life was a balancing act between heating her home or feeding her children. Another disabled woman spoke about how she was no longer able to afford to put her child in a crèche. These are horrendous stories and the Government has made these people's lives worse. It could reverse that. We will come to the next question on an emergency payment while we are waiting for this annual cost-of-disability payment to come through.

We heard a whole pile of horror issues in the audiovisual room. In fairness, the Irish Wheelchair Association, Access for All Ireland and the Disability Federation of Ireland have done really good work in putting this idea out there and making sure that people are aware of the need for a cost-of-disability payment. The Minister obviously accepts that, given the fact that there is a review process under way. At the minute, though, we are listening to horror stories. I think it was summed up in some of the documentation provided, including the comment that, some weeks, it is a toss-up between food or bills because there is nothing left. That is just the reality that people with disabilities are living with. We all accept there is an added cost. It is all well and good speaking about how we are not going to offer one-off payments, but they previously had been getting payments of up to €1,400. That has been stripped away from them. What we need to see, and what their request is, is a €400 emergency winter cost-of-disability payment and the possibility of energy credits specifically for those on disability payments. This is all imperfect. The piece of work that has been done should have been done earlier as regards reviewing what a cost-of-disability payment should look like and who should get it. That work needs to happen as soon as possible. The fact is there needs to be a payment now for people with disabilities who are under severe pressure.

I thank both Deputies. I am certainly aware of the pressures that people with disabilities are under. Nobody has an exclusive right in relation to that understanding. That is why we want a permanent payment, one that is shared and the design of which is agreed by those with disabilities and their advocates. That is why we are engaging in this process already ahead of budget 2027. Within my Department, I have made it very clear that this is my priority for budget 2027. We have increased payments this year ahead of inflation. We have increased the payments across all our payment schemes. We have increased fuel allowance and disability allowance. We have made changes in relation to a number of other measures. We will continue and engage. There will be further engagements next week in relation to the cost-of-disability payment to a permanent cost-of-disability payment and that is not one from year-to-year, depending on budgetary context. This will be a permanent payment but it is one the design of which will be shared with people with disabilities and their advocates.