Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Independent)

Today Senator Tom Clonan hosted a briefing on the challenges still facing children with scoliosis and spinal bifida. While we look at this area again in its own right, I reiterate my support for a full public inquiry on the whole scandal regarding the treatment of children awaiting scoliosis operations and related treatments, covering the entire lifespan of Children's Health Ireland but also going back to the years preceding its establishment. We need to shine a light on this shameful period and learn from the mistakes.

In his contribution today, Senator Clonan used the opportunity to highlight again how a rights-based approach to dealing with disability issues is required. This does not mean turning on an endless tap of money. However, it means looking at it from the perspective of fundamental rights where nobody should be forced into poverty because of a disability, where nobody should be disincentivised from working because of a disability and where family carers should be adequately covered for their contribution to helping people where appropriate or indeed where family members care for people who would otherwise cost the State far more if they were left in the system. I am talking about the people who care for elderly parents, for example, who could be in the system.

In terms of disability services, it means funding services adequately and supporting people with disabilities to enjoy a meaningful quality of life rather than subsistence living. As people will recall, Ireland signed the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, UNCRPD, in 2007. It was not ratified until March 2018 but last year Ireland announced its decision to accede to the optional protocol of the UNCRPD which allows individuals to file complaints with the UN if they believe their rights under convention have been violated. I heard the Minister state earlier that the Government is totally aware of the cost of disability and is committed to dealing with this on a human rights basis. It had better act soon or the complaints will be mounting.

It is now more than four years since the Indecon report on the hidden costs of disability was published. It was commissioned by the Department of Social Protection. We heard contributions mention the €10,000 average cost cited in Government reports like the Indecon report and the more recent ESRI report. However, as the Disability Federation of Ireland, DFI, has pointed out, with inflation over the past couple of years, the estimates in some of these reports could be up to €15,000, depending on different costs, which is more than the payment itself.

In the past three budgets the Government provided the one-off cost of disability supports post Covid-19. In budget 2026 all of these have been removed with nothing indicated to replace them. That means, as others said, people with disabilities are facing higher costs and fewer supports. The DFI and others welcomed the overall increase in funding. There is the €10 increase in disability allowance but taken in the round, many incomes will fall without the permanent social protection supports. We are talking about the removal of the living alone allowance, disability support grants, electricity credits and the October double payment. All of that is retrograde.

The cost of disability is the extra spending needs that people with disabilities face in their day-to-day lives that other members of society like myself do not have to deal with. I cannot talk to anyone's experience as I have not experienced it myself. I can only take on board what constituents have said to me. I refer to mobility aids, transport, communication, care costs outside of family care, other forms of assistance, medicines, medical equipment and all sorts of appliances, including the adaptations of day-to-day appliances that are not required by people within society who do not have disabilities. I am thinking of a relative of mine who is a taxi driver and many of his clients are persons with disabilities. Oftentimes people have no choice but to get taxis because they might not be able to drive, might not have an adapted car or might not be able to afford an adapted car but also because of the basic shortage of accessible public transport. The system itself does not always get you from A to B efficiently. BusConnects said that turning an older route, which people are used to, into two routes is more efficient but not for a person in a wheelchair. Two friends in wheelchairs going out socialising in many cases have to get two separate buses because only the newer buses have the wheelchair space and the buggy space. The older ones do not have that. That is a hidden discrimination people have to face. They cannot even have normal socialising with friends if those two friends are both in wheelchairs. That is one example of a direct cost. There are also items a person has to spend their limited disposable income on that more able-bodied people never have to think about. Whatever way we look at it, the costs are there.

The Government referenced the move towards a cost-of-disability payment. If it comes in, it cannot come in soon enough. If this budget is a holding position, it is a woefully inadequate holding position. The cost of living hits people with disabilities a lot more and needs to be put on a long-term footing as soon as possible.

I think the Irish Wheelchair Association said something like "heat or eat" about the budget. The Government needs to step up or step down in this instance. It should not be either-or. People deserve a reasonable quality of life.

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