Mark Wall (Kildare South, Labour)

I thank Sinn Féin for tabling this very important motion on the cost of disability payment. I welcome the fact the Minister is in the Chamber for the debate.

I will begin with an email that was sent by a constituent who has multiple sclerosis, in response to budget 2026. She writes that she cannot work and her husband's wage is above the disability threshold. She has a son in college and another in secondary school. She has been diagnosed since 2018. She has never gotten any financial support and has to pay for all the therapies. It is tough and degrading but she had hoped that something in the budget would help her. She is not angry anymore; she is just heartbroken. Today, she feels invisible and forgotten. She is not looking for money to go to buy treats. It is just for physiotherapy and acupuncture, which helps with pain, diesel money and car parking for regular medical appointments - Tallaght Hospital costs €10 for parking - and good quality shoes to help with walking. The daily cost of living is crazy. She asks what can she do so the Government can hear her voice? She writes that the disabled do not shout so they are easily pushed into a corner. She does not believe the Government will put finance into services that most will not even benefit from. It is just words to distract the public and kick that can down the road.

That is just one example of some of the emails I have received. Disabled people, like my constituent, are forced to survive on low incomes while facing sky-high extra costs every day. We know from the Indecon report published back in 2021 that people with a disability face extra costs of between nearly €9,000 and €12,00 per year. These are costs that are not covered by current social welfare payments such as the disability allowance. Since, 2021 there has been a dramatic inflationary pressure impacting many households with the real cost of disability increasing to €10,500 and even close to €15,000. These additional costs can increase with the number of disabilities or chronic illnesses, with the highest average cost being in the region of almost €50,000. The Government does not have any idea what it has done to the disabled community.

The Government has left them totally devastated, with the Disability Federation of Ireland calling this a "betrayal". The Government has shown no intention of addressing the cost of disability or changing outdated social welfare limits that confine many disabled people to their homes. These are all the core issues that have been left on the long finger. While Government rhetoric has focused on increased investment in services, which we all welcome, this will do little to affect the challenges facing people with disabilities daily such as high levels of unemployment and poverty. There are at least eight programme for Government commitments to address the cost of disability, including introducing a cost-of-disability payment and extending free travel to children who receive the domiciliary care allowance. Budget 2026 did not address a single one of those commitments. In fact it increased the costs faced by disabled people. The Government's decision to cut measures from the previous budget means, as said by many previous speakers, that many disabled people will lose almost €1,300 a year. That is not spare cash anyone has lying around; it is what kept the lights on and the house warm. These measures should have been made permanent in a cost-of-disability payment, which the Labour Party proposed, starting at €25 a week. Instead, the Government decided to introduce subsidised burgers. It is remarkable that only a few weeks ago, the Government published its first ever human rights strategy for disabled people. This has not been matched with the ambition or required funding in budget 2026.

It has left disabled people and their families feeling invisible and forgotten once again. Nearly €700 will be wasted on a VAT cut for Ronald McDonald. This is a big business sector already making massive profits while disabled people like my constituent are not entitled to a single allowance or support from the Government. This is not pocket change; it is almost €700 million that will be of most benefit to those in big business. Along with a cost-of-disability payment, nearly €1.2 billion was given away to fast-food chains and property developers. This could have increased the income disregard for those on the disability allowance to €250. It could have increased funding for the EmployAbility and WorkAbility programmes to support people with disabilities in the workplace. It could have provided for 1,000 extra places on the wage subsidy scheme, restoring the link to 70% of the national minimum wage and introduce reforms to improve the scheme. All of this would only have cost, according to our costed budget, €350 million with enough left over to provide even more supports like increasing the living alone allowance to €27 per week and the fuel allowance by €9.50, providing an additional four weeks also.

I wish to raise those living with a disability and the problems they have in gaining employment. The wage subsidy scheme could provide a much better pathway for more people to enter employment. However, one of the biggest employers of those with a disability, Rehab, in conversation said the Government's announcement of €1.20 increase in the minimum wage seems disingenuous given the actual increases applied to anyone employing more than two disabled employees range between 18 cent and 94 cent, considerably less than €1.20 and, in most instances, less than the increase in the national minimum wage of 65 cent. This is the type of comment I am hearing on the budget proposals. I ask that these examples be re-examined.

I wish to put on the record a conversation I had with a person in receipt of the disability allowance on my way to Dublin today. This person cannot afford to put the heating on for the hours his disability and medical conditions require. Instead, he goes to bed early and wraps himself up in his duvet. To add insult, his phone was recently cut off for a number of days by Eir even though it knew he was a vulnerable customer. The reply from that company when he rang them when he got his phone back was that it had a new system and the computer did not recognise he was a vulnerable customer. All of this was for an outstanding bill of €96. This is an example of the daily life of many of the people I deal with who are living with a disability. This is why the Government should have chosen a disability payment over a big VAT cut for bigger and bigger businesses.

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