James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail)
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350. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the provisions in Budget 2026 to address the cost of disability. [61904/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The Government recognises the significant additional costs that disabled people can face in their daily lives and is committed improving outcomes for disabled people.

Budget 2026 contains significant measures to support disabled people. These measures include:

• a €10 increase in the weekly rates of payment, bringing the personal rates of payment to €254 per week from January;
• Christmas bonus - double payment to all persons getting a long-term disability payment to be paid in December 2025;
• the highest ever increases in the Child Support Payment – an increase of €16 to €78 for children aged 12 or over, and of €8 to €58 for children under 12;
• a €20 increase in the rate of Domiciliary Care Allowance;
• a €5 increase in the Fuel Allowance, bringing it to €38 per week from January 2026;
• people moving from Disability Allowance or Blind Pension to take up work will be able to retain their Fuel Allowance payment for five years. The Back to Work Family Dividend is also being extended to this group, where they have children;
• extending the Wage Subsidy Scheme to people who acquire a disability while in employment and increasing its rates from April;
• increase the Earnings Disregard for Carer’s Allowance by €375 to €1,000 for a single person and by €750 to €2,000 for a couple from July 2026;
• the income limit for Carer’s Benefit will increase by €375 to €1,000 per week from July 2026.

This is the first of this Government’s five Budgets. We are at the start of a five-year programme for Government and not everything can be done in year one. In the Programme for Government, we have committed to introducing a permanent Annual Cost of Disability Support Payment with a view to incrementally increasing this payment.

We know that addressing the cost of disability is not a question of income support alone. The delivery of and access to services are also key. We need all of the Departments and agencies of Government to work together to address the issue in a comprehensive way.

The recently published National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People 2025-2030 takes a whole-of-Government approach and includes a commitment to establish a Strategic Focus Network on the Cost of Disability, led by my Department.

The work of this network, which will include people with disabilities and their advocates, will inform the approach we will be taking in delivering on this Programme for Government commitment.

Officials in my Department have started to have meetings with stakeholder groups with a view to bringing a proposal to Government in the first half of next year.