Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2025-12-09
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Jack Chambers (FF), Dublin West

I reject the assertion that we have had committees and no action has been taken. That is actually untrue. The 20% increase in funding for the Department of disability and the work the Minister, Deputy Foley, is now doing with the HSE on a new service plan will provide a significant improvement in the State's response to improve disability services in 2026. There is a record level of funding to support people with disabilities. When it comes to the Department of Social Protection, as I said, we introduced a series of measures around the fuel allowance, improving core welfare rates and increasing the domiciliary care allowance and back to work family dividend.
We have been clear that the budget we have agreed for 2026 is the settled allocation for next year. Of course, we will engage with all the stakeholders involved around budget 2027, and that will be considered as part of next year's budget. The payments referenced by the Deputy were one-off measures taken in previous years. We were clear in how we developed budget 2026 that the measures we would take had to be permanent, sustainable and affordable. We have made a significant intervention in the social protection package.

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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