Social Welfare Payments
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-15
============================================================

Seamus Healy (IND), Tipperary South

People with disabilities are entitled to live with dignity, security and equal opportunity. Unfortunately, reports show that disabled individuals are four times more likely to live in poverty. In fact, one in five disabled people who are unable to work live in consistent poverty. Two in five experience enforced deprivation and are unable to afford essentials like heating, new clothes or social contact. These individuals and their families have substantial additional costs over other individuals and families, for instance, therapy, mobility, communications, medical supplies, specialised transport and heating costs. Research shows there is widespread acceptance of this and that these additional costs range from €488 per week to €555 per week. Many disabled people have to regularly make the choice between charging their wheelchair or heating their home. The Disability Federation of Ireland recommended a non-taxable weekly payment of €55 in its budget submission.
This is a very wealthy country and this is a group of people who are in a particularly difficult situation.
I urge the Minister to introduce this payment. I understand he is considering that for 2027, but some people need it urgently.

---

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/2026-01-15/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:30+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-15