The Tánaiste is the Minister for Finance and the leader of Fine Gael. In the budget for 2027, there is a promised cost-of-disability payment. In budget 2025, there was a disability support grant of €400 but in budget 2026, there was no one-off payment. In fact, disabled people are €1,400 worse off as a result of the budget in 2026. Many disabled people have said they are choosing between heating and eating. One person with a spinal injury told me that since 1999, he does not remember it being this bad. When my party and I raised this and called for a modest emergency winter payment of €400 last month, we were met with derision by the Government. Disabled people were accused of being alarmist, misleading and dangerous. The Government is now forcing disabled people to take to the streets on 28 February to ask for their basic needs to be met. Will it reverse this disastrous budgetary oversight as a matter of urgency? Will the Tánaiste condemn or at least disavow the hurtful and disgraceful comments of the Minister for Social Protection?

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They do.

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