Annie Hoey (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise two issues. Yesterday was the eighth anniversary of marriage equality. All of us will recall the campaign and celebration very fondly. There was literally dancing in the streets. It brings to mind the number of disabled members of Irish society for whom marriage equality does not fully exist. This is an issue across the world. Many disabled people, if they get married, lose their benefits because of means-testing or various systems. We should not have a system in which a person has to choose between love and poverty, nor should we have one in which a disabled person has to choose between love and independence. This issue has been documented across the world to varying degrees. Disabled people are not being given the choice to live with dignity, autonomy or even independence because of how supports are made available. We know from a study that having a disability results in €12,000 in costs that are not met by the supports given by the State. Therefore, it is extremely expensive to have a disability, unfortunately. We know the State supports are not available. Some disabled people are penalised for getting married because many of our supports are means-tested. Therefore, the individuals become dependent on the people they marry. There are very few circumstances in which able-bodied people, upon marrying someone, immediately lose their sense of independence and become dependent on someone else. This is a global issue, not just an issue in Ireland. When talking about marriage equality, we should remember that all people – all adults – should be able to get married without facing discrimination or financial penalties.

The second topic I want to raise concerns the really upsetting and disgraceful scenes we have seen involving the blockading of people at Inch, Sandwith Street and Santry.I refer to the blockading of people. Very often, these are people just minding their own beeswax and have nothing to do with anything. From this House and the political leadership, it is important that we acknowledge no one, and not Government policy, is making people blockade other people from getting to where they need to. No Government policy, no consultation and no anything is forcing people to stop buses, to do headcounts, to check passports or to set homes on fire. There is no policy like this. We must be extremely careful in political leadership when we are talking about issues local people have and then these issues. We should not conflate local concerns and saying if there had been consultation, this would not have happened. People are choosing to undertake these blockades. We must condemn this activity at all levels. We need political leadership to unequivocally condemn these blockades and inspections of people. It is important we get this from both Houses.