Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach told disabled people that they would feel seen in this budget and in his reply, the Minister said we all share the feeling that it needs to be prioritised. Does the Minister genuinely think that children and their families who are waiting to access CDNTs feel prioritised or seen in this budget? Does he think that the people who hoped that the motorised transport grant for disabled people that was axed over a decade ago might be reintroduced in this budget feel seen? We have the lowest employment rates for disabled people in Europe. Does the Minister think those people feel seen in this budget? Was anything done for them? Does he think that disabled people who will get the one-off payment feel seen when someone has a disability for 365 days of the year? Does he think that is an attempt by this Government to prioritise disabled people or make them feel seen?

When we got the budget announcement last year, we heard from the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, that there was an allocation of €195.1 million. The then Minister for Finance at the time, Michael McGrath, said it was €200 million. After the journalist Ailbhe Conneely examined it a bit more closely and got answers from the Department, it turned out that it was actually only an additional €64 million. Can the Minister give me an exact figure of how much of the figure he highlighted is actually additional funding this year or will we have to leave it up to journalists to establish the reality of the allocation for disability this year?

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