Paul Murphy confronts Minister over €1,404 disability cuts

Minister, the programme for Government promises an annual cost of disability support payment, suggests that it will be incrementally increased. Instead of introducing that in the last budget, the Government introduced an incredible series of very cruel cuts totalling over 1400 euros for disabled people. The question to the Minister is when are you going to write this wrong, what level of payment are you going to introduce and when are you going to introduce this annual cost of disability payment? The Department of Social Protection provides a range of income support payments for disabled people. There are currently approximately 231,000 recipients of disability income support payments with an estimated expenditure of €3.24 billion in 2025. The Government recognises significant additional costs that disabled people face in their daily lives and we are committed to improving outcomes for disabled people by introducing permanent measures. That is why the programme for Government includes a range of commitments to support disabled people. Our programme for Government commitments will be advanced over the lifetime of the Government, having regard to the overall policy and budgetary context. The programme for Government commits to introducing a permanent annual cost of disability support payment. My Department will lead a strategic focus network with the involvement of other relevant departments and agencies as a commitment under the National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People. The work of the Strategic Focus Network, which will include disabled people and their advocates, will inform the approach to be taken in delivering on the programme for Government commitment. My officials have been asked to expediate this work with a view to bringing a proposal to Government in the first half of this year. Officials have already held meetings with a number of organisations to discuss the possible structure and content of the Strategic Focus Network on the Cost of Disability. My officials met with a number of organisations on the 2nd of December at my Department's Disability Consultative Forum, at which the Cost of Disability Strategic Focus Network was the main agenda item. A meeting with Disabled Persons Organisation Network is scheduled for Friday the 23rd of January. The views of disabled people and all of the relevant research, such as the Indicon report, the more recent DSRI report, will be considered by my Department in progressing this work. And once again, to reiterate, as I said earlier, we will be also having public consultation where we look forward to views from across the House in relation to what the permanent cost of disability payment should look like. It says a lot about the priorities of the Government, that you can have fast tracking of VAT cuts for fast food giants, you can have VAT cuts for developers, but you have this on-the-paper commitment to an annual cost of disability payment. It does not come in, instead you cut substantially their income. We know, and the Government acknowledges, you have commissioned the report yourself, it costs a lot of money to be disabled in this country. Adjusted for inflation, the Indicon reports between 10,000 euros a year and 15,000 euros a year. It means an extra 500 euros a week. That is how much disabled people need to come close to a normal standard of living. The rate of enforced deprivation for disabled people who are unable to work is massive, it is 39 per cent. The rate of consistent poverty is one in five. The lowest rate in the entire European Union of disabled people who are in work. You had a 400 euro lump sum disability payment last year, that was a drop in the ocean, but far from increasing it, as was promised, you actually abolished it completely and then cut a whole series of other payments, putting people into even more dire poverty. That needs to be reversed immediately, Minister. Thank you, Minister. As I said, Deputy, we are currently providing 231,000 people across the country with disability income support payment, with an expenditure of 3.24 billion euro in 2025. There are a number of significant measures in terms of Budget 2026. We have included a 10 euro increase in the weekly rate of payment, which will bring the personal rate of payment to 254 euro per week from this month. That is a 51 euro increase to weekly income support payments since Budget 21. The highest ever increases in the child support payment increase of 16 euro to 78 euro for children aged 12 or over, of 8 euro to 58 for children under 12. A 20 euro increase in the rate of domiciliary care allowance, bringing that rate to 380 euro per month from the 1st of January. And we have also made changes to those moving from disability allowance to take up work, that they would be allowed to retain the field allowance payment. And the Budget 2026 allocation of 3.8 billion euro, the Department of Children, Disability and Equality for Disability Services in 2026 represents another very significant investment. As I said, we are prioritising the work on a permanent cost disability payment. I look forward to views from across the House as to who should get that, what the rate should be, and with the work on that is already underway. Thank you. If you want to quote payments, we can quote payments. The Irish wheelchair association, Access for All, Disability Federation Ireland have done very, very good work of making people aware of the cruel cuts that the Government has introduced in the last Budget. Disability support grant, €400 previously removed, a loss of €400. Living alone allowance, a loss of €200. Fuel allowance, a loss of €160. The October double payment, a loss of €254. The loss of the electricity credit, another €250. A total net loss for disabled people of €1,404. There was a powerful AV room briefing yesterday here, where we heard from all these organisations, from disabled people themselves, about the extreme crisis that they are in. One woman said, my life is a balancing act, do I heat my home or do I feed my children? There was another disabled woman speaking about how she is no longer able to afford to put her child in a crash. Just horrendous stories that the Government has made these people's lives worse. They could reverse it. We will come to the next question on an emergency payment while we are waiting for this annual cost disability payment to come through. I am certainly very aware of the pressures the people with disability are under. Nobody has an exclusive right in relation to that understanding. That is why we want a permanent payment. That is why we want a payment that is shared and that the design of which is agreed by those with disability and their advocates. That is why we are engaging in this process already ahead of Budget 2027. I have made it very clear that this is my priority for Budget 2027. We have increased payments this year ahead of inflation. We have increased payments across all of our payment schemes. We have increased fuel allowance. We have also made an increase in disability allowance and we have made changes in relation to a number of other measures. We will continue and we will engage and there will be further engagements next week in relation to a cost disability payment to a permanent cost disability payment. That is not one from year to year depending on the budgetary context. This will be a permanent payment but it is one whose design will be shared by the disability or people with disability and their advocates. Thank you. Moving to question number 12.