I thank the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach. I will move our amendment, if that is in order.

Sentiment score: 0.18

I will not move it then. As Labour Party spokesman on social protection and disability, I welcome the opportunity to speak on this very important motion. I sincerely thank colleagues in the Social Democrats for bringing forward this motion. It is very timely given the cold and unpredictable weather we have been experiencing over the past number of weeks. The Labour Party has an amendment to this motion to ensure all disabled citizens are captured within the motion. I welcome the spirit of this motion, and our amendment would ensure that all disabled citizens were included. The Labour Party amendment would extend the emergency payment to older people with a disability in receipt of a State pension. This amendment would also ensure that any future cost-of-disability payment supports for older people whose disability ceases to be recognised on the current social protection system once they begin to receive a State pension after moving from one of the listed disability payments. Our 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 the 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 payments like the disability allowance. I am very disappointed by the lack of progress this Government has made in progressing a cost-of-disability payment. It cannot continue to put this on the long finger. Disabled people are having to make very tough choices such as whether they can turn on the heating or have something to eat. Budget 2026 marked a decline in the standard of living for many disabled people. The past number of budgets provided access to the disability support grant, a once off cost-of-disability payment that Government paid three years in a row. However, the cost of disability is not a once off. The failure to continue this payment, even on a temporary basis while a new payments was designed, has left disabled people losing nearly €1,400 a year. Given the Minister's update this morning on the disability support grant, why did the Government choose to get rid of these short-term payments in the absence of this new payment and it coming into force? Nobody has that type of money lying around. For some households, it is the difference of being above the poverty line and whether the Government likes it or not, that is a fact. I have counted at least eight programme for Government commitments to addressing the cost of disability, including a new payment and extending free travel to children who receive the domiciliary care allowance. However, the Government has not yet addressed a single one of these commitments. What it has done is continually increased costs faced by these households. The Government favoured a VAT cut rate of nearly €700 million for fast-food chains that were already making millions of euro in profits while disabled people and their families can barely afford to keep the lights on. This VAT rate cut could have funded the new cost-of-disability payment starting at €25 per week with money still left over to do more for these households. To add insult to injury, the Government provided a tax cut to developers amounting to over €500 million. This is the money that could have been used to increase the income disregard for the disability allowance to €250, increase the funding for the employability and workability programmes to support people with disabilities in the work place, and provide 1,000 extra places on the wage subsidy scheme, restoring the link to 70% of the national minimum wage and introduce reforms to improve the scheme. Implementing these measures would have still leftover finance to provide even more supports for people, like increasing the income threshold for the medical card or cutting public hospital parking charges in half for those who need them most. I want to address the Minister's speech. The Cathaoirleach Gníomhach and the Minister will not be surprised that I will bring up the community welfare service once again. I heard the Minister speaking this morning on the heating supplement that the community welfare service administers, and he said he would share details with all the Members of this House. Does this Government, the Minister and everybody here not realise the problems that so many people have contacting their community welfare officer? Does the Minister not know the problems those with a disability have in filling out such forms and getting bank statement after bank statement for a system that, I will say again, has lost its personal touch and has become centralised? As part of this motion from the Social Democrats, I am asking the Government to give a commitment that the heating supplement will be properly advertised. As somebody who has worked in local government and at national level for almost 25 years, it beggars belief that there is a payment that so many people know so little about. Will the Government make it easier to apply for that payment and will this payment be judged sympathetically by the community welfare service? Will the need for form after form for such a payment be reduced? At the end of the day, this heating supplement could actually make a difference and is part of what this motion calls for today. It could make a difference as to whether a person turns on their heating or not. It could make a difference to the quality of life for so many disabled people. The Minister mentioned that 692 people are in receipt of the heating supplement yet he also mentioned 231,000 people are in receipt of disability allowance and 170,000 people are in receipt of carers allowance. That is 692 people versus 231,000 and 170,000 people. The Cathaoirleach Gníomhach must get my drift that if the Government is serious about helping people with disabilities, it now has an outcome and needs to share, advertise and allow people get the heating supplement urgently so those with disabilities can have a quality of life and not just the 692 people for whom I am sure it is very welcome. I ask the Minister of State to bring this message back to the Minister, Deputy Calleary, and to ask the Government to make a difference. The heating supplement will make a difference if it is offered to those who need it the most. Like other colleagues, in my office in Kildare South – I am sure it is the same for the Minister of State in his office – I receive calls from people on a daily basis who tell me that they simply cannot turn on their heating. What is proposed here is a solution that the Government could introduce straight away. I will conclude with a few lines from a constituent whose story I shared previously in this House and with whom I have been in regular contact in the meantime. What I am about to read into the record accurately sums up what the disabled community thinks of the Government’s actions. The person in question wrote: I do not believe that they will put finance into services that matter most, even those that people will benefit from. It is just words to distract the public and kick the can down the road. That is the type of sentiment I get day in, day out in my office. Why are people with disabilities always the ones who have to fight? Disabled people state that they need more than words; they need action. I have given the Government an action it could take. A total of 692 people are in receipt of the grant in question, but almost 500,000 people may need it. That is the action that needs to be taken. As we always say in this House, action speaks louder than words. Disabled people are tired. That is the sentiment I am getting from them. They are tired of fighting for their children and for themselves. The Government’s inaction has forced that tiredness upon them. They need to see action now, and they need payment. I welcome the fact that the Social Democrats tabled this motion. We support it, but we have tabled an amendment to it. We ask that the Government withdraws its amendment and supports those with disabilities once and for all.

Sentiment score: 0.11