Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-13
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Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

If you go back over the past two to three years, you will see that there has been exponential growth in various payments right across the board, including the disability allowance. That growth was higher than anything in the preceding years. That is the reality. In terms of the cost-of-disability payment, it has to be defined and worked through. There is a lot of detail is involved in this; it is not just a matter of saying that we should do it this way or that way. There are issues around definitions, who benefits and so on. Meanwhile, we did increase the domiciliary care allowance by €20 again this year. We did the same last year. Disability allowance core payments went up substantially as well. The whole process is about arriving at a situation where we can develop a proposal. The Minister will have a proposal in July on foot of the consultation process that is taking place. That will then be fed into the Estimates negotiations for the budget.
The Minister has to respect the negotiations that will ensue for the Estimates for next year for his Department but also all other Government Departments-----

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-05-13/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:03+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-13