Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

Among those who felt let down by last week's budget were people with disabilities and their families. Those families are used to the parties in government failing them but once again, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael did not even try to prove them wrong. Disabled people feel the brunt of the cost-of-living crisis. They suffer as much as, and arguably more than, all the others who were last week abandoned by a horrible and cruel budget. Disabled people also face costs that most of us do not. There is a recognised cost of disability. It is recognised, it seems, by everyone expect the members of the Government. There must be a permanent cost-of-disability payment. The payment should not just stop at pension age because the cost of disability does not stop. It is unfair and nonsensical that someone who is entitled to a disability payment until they reach retirement age is then moved onto an old age pension with no recognition of the additional financial burden their disability brings.

Families with children who have profound disabilities often face the greatest burden of all. That is especially true in counties such as Cavan and Monaghan where children are denied the services and treatments they deserve by the HSE. Waiting lists for occupational therapy, speech and language therapy and physiotherapy treatments are so long, especially in Cavan, that it is probably simpler to say they do not exist at all.

Of the 225 children awaiting an assessment for disciplinary support in Cavan, 208 have been waiting for over a year. What does that mean for parents? It means they spend every spare penny they have trying to source private treatment. The Government continually kicks them in the teeth and forces families to source the treatment, often involving long distances of travel, and then refuses to reimburse them the costs involved. Like many of his contemporaries on the Government benches, the Minister talks the talk about respecting and caring for our citizens with disabilities but he does not walk the walk by providing them with the supports they need.

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