Yesterday, the Taoiseach did not answer my party leader, Holly Cairns, on whether an emergency winter payment for people with disabilities would be provided. Instead, he said the Government wanted to embed permanent changes to payments, but it has not done that either. The Government has instead slashed the income of some of the most vulnerable people in this country by €1,400 before those permanent supports were ready. It has also plunged more disabled people into poverty to face a grim Christmas. They are already the cohort with among the highest deprivation and poverty rates in the country and among the lowest employment rates in the developed world. It is not too late to admit this was wrong and to do something about it, so I will ask again. Will the Government introduce an emergency €400 winter payment for disabled people and commit to introducing a permanent cost-of-disability payment in the new year?

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So, he is ruling it out.

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This will be real change.

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