Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions Dail Éireann — 2026-01-14 ============================================================ Cian O'Callaghan (SD), Dublin Bay North I wish to begin by welcoming a number of representatives from different disability organisations who are in the Public Gallery with us today. I thank them for the strong and powerful contributions they just made in a briefing for all Oireachtas Members in the audiovisual room. They told us about the extreme hardship being faced by many disabled people. We heard about people who had had to stop getting their dialysis at home because they could no longer afford the electricity bills. This has a huge impact on their quality of life and well-being. We heard about people being forced to choose between heating their home and charging their electric wheelchairs and mobility aids, trapped now all winter because they cannot afford to charge their electric wheelchairs and being robbed of their independence. The decision by the Taoiseach's Government, which slashed incomes for disabled people by up to €1,400, is cruel and regressive. This is what disabled people have had to say about these budget cuts. Saoirse said: I am in pain constantly and I have to pay for physiotherapy because the community physiotherapy lists were too long. The physio appointments cost me €75 per session." Gary said the only way he could feed himself was to buy food that was going out of date and reduced, cook it off and freeze it. He goes on to describe his choices as being between eating and being cold or being in the dark. Another disabled person told us that, after Christmas, they were now faced with a €500 electricity bill and they did not know how they would pay it. This is the reality for the tens of thousands of disabled people all over the country who feel targeted and attacked by the Taoiseach's Government. They are among the most vulnerable and most at risk of poverty in our society. They face enormous additional costs running into thousands of euro every year because they have disabilities. This Government, instead of supporting them, has cut their incomes. The only thing it has to offer are platitudes. We are told a cost of disability payment is now a priority for the forthcoming budget, but if the Government acknowledges the very real costs and the need for such a payment, why did it cut the incomes of disabled people so dramatically in the budget? What does the Taoiseach expect disabled people to live on? Fresh air and broken promises? People with disabilities just want to live full and independent lives but Government decisions are pushing more and more people into poverty. The Government loudly claims that it wants to target resources to those who need it most while at the same time quietly cutting the incomes of the most vulnerable. It is wrong, it is reprehensible and it can and must be addressed. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-01-14/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:30+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-01-14