This evening I want to make it very clear what is at stake. As someone who has spent a significant portion of my adult life working with adults with disabilities, I witnessed the pressures they face. It is not just about heating a home or buying food. It is about the endless hidden costs that the vast majority of people never see. It is about those extra expenses able-bodied people never have to think about; the cost of transport, the need for specialist equipment or how restricted they are, even with transport options. It all adds up to constant, grinding reality. There is a heightened risk of poverty for those living with a disability in this country. Tonight we stand here again speaking on the hidden cost of disability, just as we did a few months ago. Those with a disability and their families cannot afford a repeat of what happened then. They were left disappointed, angered and feeling abandoned by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael TDs as they voted down a motion on an emergency €400 cost-of-living payment for people with disabilities. The Government listened to the personal stories of relentless financial pressure crushing our disabled community and then turned its back. Week after week, we raise these cases. We bring the Government the pleas of people being left behind and yet, it falls on deaf ears. I have to ask the Minister directly; who is this Government championing? Is it the person with a disability who is struggling to survive? Is it a family struggling to find a home or affordable childcare? Is it the large property developers and multinationals, like Starbucks and McDonalds, which want to pay less tax? When we look at the measures the Minister's party has put in place, the answer is clear: corporate giants receive generous tax breaks while our most vulnerable citizens do not even receive enough to keep up with inflation. The welfare and treatment of our most vulnerable citizens is the mark of the society we want to achieve. That is not my opinion; that is a measure of our humanity. We need to see this Government act. We need to see it stand with the tens of thousands of people with disabilities and their families who are at the highest risk of 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, hardship caused by the Government's failure to act. Deputy Kerrane summed things up quite well in what she said about the Minister's amendment. It seems to me that the Government is just not listening.

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