As someone who has spent a significant portion of my 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 me of our first Private Members' business in the Dáil after the budget when we raised this very issue and presented our own solutions. Sadly, the Government parties failed to take any of those proposals on board. Here we are, months later, and the crisis we warned about has come to pass in full. The heightened risk of poverty for those living with a disability is an appalling reflection on the failure of the Minister and his colleagues. Each and every week in this Chamber we raise the case of groups of people who are struggling, who are left behind by the Government, but it seems to fall on deaf ears. Who is this Government championing? Is it those with a disability? Is it those struggling to find a home or to find affordable childcare, or is it the large property developers and multinational corporates like Starbucks and McDonalds? When we look at the measures put in place by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, the latter have received more than generous measures, while the former did not even receive enough to keep up with inflation. The welfare and treatment of our most vulnerable citizens is the mark of society we want to achieve but this Government has decided to subject tens of thousands of people with disabilities and their families to 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 because of the Government's failure to listen to the pleas for support. How the Government can stand over this suffering is beyond me. Is it a matter of policy and how the Government views society or is it simply that it is out of touch with ordinary people?

Sentiment score: -0.19