Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I compliment Sinn Féin on bringing forward this motion. It is important we debate what is a very pertinent issue for many people in the country.

As a member of the Joint Committee on Disability Matters, I want to say a few words about people with disabilities during this debate on the cost of living, the cost of food and everything else. The Indecon report, which was commissioned by the Government, clearly demonstrated that, on average, the cost of living with a disability, is €9,200 per person per annum. The report was done prior to any of the inflationary pressures we have had prior to the war in Ukraine and the other reasons that caused it. Given the funding that is coming in through corporation tax, I plead with the Government to look at people with disabilities in the next budget with a view to putting in place a personalised additional budget on top of the social welfare they are getting at the moment to ensure we close the gap between the cost of their disability and allowing them to live. We had a debate about it last week, but it is important we do something in the budget this year because we have an opportunity to do it given we have money now. We must make sure we do it in a way that is effective for people who have a disability.

I have spoken previously about mortgages. It is important we take on board the fact that people with a tracker mortgage are coming under severe pressure because their mortgage is rising month upon month and their repayments are getting higher. Last week, I came across a couple in my constituency, both of whom have found themselves on disability payments. They are on a tracker mortgage and they do not want to fall behind. They do not want to have a bad credit rating on their mortgage. They have probably 15 or 16 years of their mortgage paid and, unfortunately, they have found themselves in a difficult position. Their mortgage has gone up possibly by €500 per month in recent months, and that is not sustainable for them. They are being forced into trying to live like slaves to a mortgage, while they are still under pressure with their health. It is important we look at people in such situations, whose mortgage is costing them a lot of money every month, so that they do not become slaves to a mortgage and we give them respite, for example, by giving tax relief and by giving other reliefs to people who are not earning money who still have a mortgage. That is very important.

The cost of food is a double-edged sword. I come from a rural constituency where many farmers have spent the past couple of months during the lambing season trying to look after their flock to make sure the lambs come fully around and are ready for sale in the next couple of months. They have put hard work into all of this and they have been under stress from being up during the night maybe four or five times. The whole family is involved. The situation arises that they might have plenty of lambs for sale but they do not have a clue what price they will get for their product at the end of the day as there is no guarantee. I heard the Minister of State, Deputy Calleary, talk about bringing in legislation on food prices and the supply chain and seeing where the costs are coming from in order to have a more transparent industry where we can see the inputs, costs and profits. It is very important we do that to provide transparency in the food chain in this country. Otherwise, we will find ourselves without farmers producing food and then we will have to buy imported food and be at the mercy of outside traders. It is important we do what has been outlined, which I welcome.

The price of lamb has gone down for farmers but the price of the lamb at the counter might not have gone down. The other side of the coin is the reduction in the price of milk or butter. We must ask if at the end of the day it is the producer who is paying for the reduction in cost or if it is being borne by the supermarket chains that are putting these measures in place for marketing purposes. We are playing around with people's livelihoods.

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