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.

Sentiment score: -0.03

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.

Sentiment score: 0.01