Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)

I am really disappointed that we are here dealing with this issue today. The Government recently published the national human rights strategy for disabled people. It spoke about a human rights ethos and the fact that disabled people should have certain things as a right. In fairness, a number of the advocacy organisations, including Rehab, DFI, the IWA and all the constituent parts of the Disability Federation of Ireland, will have representatives here. The one thing they said was that at least last year, even if it was one-off payments, there was a recognition of the cost of disability. We have had multiple reports. We can all go back to the Indecon report of 2021. On average, the cost of disability was found to be between €9,482 and €11,734. We have seen reports that this number has vastly increased on those figures. We have all spoken to people and we know the anecdotal stories. I can speak about a man in my constituency. He speaks about how he can get on in life fine, but he requires orthopedic footwear. I would not even like to call out the figure he has to pay for that, with no element of support whatsoever.

I thank the Disability Federation of Ireland. I will go through a couple of short statements it compiled, because this is the reality for these people. Sinn Féin has put forward a very straightforward proposal. I would like to think that the Government will not only not oppose this motion but will support it and will see the wrong done to those with a disability, who have a huge level of costs and huge difficulties we cannot even imagine. I would like to think we would look at meeting them halfway. We really need to look at a lump-sum payment for those with disabilities. We also need to look at a cost-of-disability payment and an increase of at least €20 to disability-related social welfare payments. That is just a start.

I turn now to the statements:

We are more reliant than ever on our families and our independence is being eroded more and more. This is not because of our disability. This is because we need to address the cost of living and the cost of living with a disability

[...]

I am receiving a disability payment and the household benefit package. The money received from both these payments is inadequate. I have to attend a food bank weekly, and apart from it being demoralising, it is a necessity to survive. Simply, the word saving does not apply to me, as I simply have nothing left over. I know the cold, long winter nights are only around the corner and it scares me to think about it

[...]

I am not looking to be a millionaire. I am looking for security, home, heat, food, family and not to fight for every basic thing.

In the short period I have left, I am also going to ask the Minister to look at the wage subsidy scheme. He announced a €1.20 increase to it. We know, though, that when employers employed a greater number, they used to get paid on the basis of a percentage increase. The Minister, however, has put it in as a lump sum. Rather than an increase of €1.20, in certain cases, in the case of enterprises with three to six employees, we are talking about only a 57 cent increase, while for enterprises with 12 to 16 employees, it is only a 21 cent increase. This has been brought to my attention and it needs to be dealt with. I will provide the information to the Minister later. It needs to be dealt with.

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