Social Welfare Payments
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-15
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Paul Murphy (PBP), Dublin South-West

It says a lot about the priorities of the Government that it can have fast-tracking of VAT cuts for fast food giants and developers whereas, although it has this on-the-paper commitment to an annual cost-of-disability payment, the payment does not come in. Instead, the Government cuts disabled people's income substantially. We know and the Government acknowledges - it has commissioned the report itself - that it costs a lot of money to be disabled in this country. Adjusted for inflation, the Indecon report states it is between about €10,000 and €15,000 a year. It means an extra €500 a week. That is how much disabled people need to come close to a normal standard of living. The rate of enforced deprivation for disabled people who are unable to work is massive at 39%. The rate of consistent poverty is one in five. We have the lowest rate in the entire European Union of disabled people who are in work. The Government had a €400 lump sum disability payment last year. That was a drop in the ocean. Far from increasing it as promised, however, the Government actually abolished it completely and then cut a whole series of other payments, putting people into even more dire poverty. That needs to be reversed immediately.

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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