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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

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

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

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

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

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

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 … 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

listening to what disabled people are trying to tell it about the real challenges they face in terms of heating and the cost of living? The emergency measure we are proposing would cost €124 million. That amounts to just 1% of the €12.4 billion surplus from last year

amount by Friday? We are talking about pensioners who are absolutely distraught and people who are already in poverty because of the cost of living. I am asking the Minister, once and for all, to ensure that there is fairness for people in rural Ireland. When we talk

there are many more Irish people across the world who would love to return but see the housing crisis and ever-rising cost of living as barriers. We must do more to encourage and help them to return. However, there is no doubt our international processing and enforcement

this Government constantly on the protection of landlords' profits? When we consider the context, we are in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, rents have already doubled over the last ten years and there are 16,000 homeless people, of whom nearly 5,000 are children

pension scheme who have not had an increase since 2008. That is 18 years, and we are all conscious of how the cost of living has increased during that period. Furthermore, to compound issues for members, many were paying a class of PRSI that allowed them no access

words after "relentlessly attacked; and" and substitute the following: "— Irish taxpayers are facing severe pressures at home in housing, healthcare, infrastructure and cost of living, and overseas financial commitments must be assessed against those realities, and therefore calls on the Government to prepare and lay, before each House

supporting military aid into a country and this undermines our entire neutrality. I have to ask: when is enough enough? The cost of living in this country is absolutely crazy. We currently have 17,000 men, women and children on the streets of this country without houses

facing tough financial times. Every man, woman and child has been put to the pin of their collar trying to survive. The cost of living has become exorbitantly high. There are people on trolleys in our hospitals every day. Our infrastructure is in a terrible way. Many people

hour, while the current living wage is €14.75. The gap between the two matters, particularly in the context of the rising cost of living. Skilled and dedicated staff are leaving the sector in growing numbers, often moving to special needs assistant roles or other areas where their qualifications

charge for childcare, while his wife's income goes towards their mortgage of €1,600 per month. In view of the high cost of living on top of these charges, how are families supposed to cope? Many of them are fighting through traffic gridlock and floods

have record homelessness, with over 5,300 children homeless right now and living in emergency accommodation. We have a cost-of-living crisis, with families struggling to afford the basics, many of them renters. Hundreds of thousands of renters in the coming years, who are struggling … basic costs of living, will not be able to afford the new market rent. Does the Minister agree that rents will increase as a result of these measures in the coming years? As a result of changes that he is about to make, rents are going to increase

that have to be paid. A great many people and households across the country are already living payslip to payslip in a cost-of-living crisis. The question we are hearing from people is: what happens if the work dries up? The uncomfortable truth is that this vulnerability