Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2025-12-09
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Holly Cairns (SD), Cork South-West

The Minister is saying there will be a committee to start looking at schemes. I want to highlight the fact there has been committee after committee after committee on disability, and there has been report after report after report, and they all have the same finding: there is a huge added cost to having a disability. We know that people with disabilities in Ireland are living in consistent poverty above and beyond other European countries. We know they have a lower chance of being employed as disabled persons in this country. The Government has had all the committees and reports it needs. People are outside protesting today to tell the Government that they just need action now. They do not need another committee or another report. They do not need to wait until the next budget. There is a cost-of-living crisis now. Disabled people were already disproportionately living in poverty, and now their payments have been cut.
I am going to again ask the Minister the two questions that I initially asked. Will the Government introduce an emergency winter disability payment? Will it finally introduce a permanent cost-of-disability payment? The last budget before this one recognised the cost of disability. Now, the Government has abandoned it.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-12-09/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:26+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-09