Cost of Disability: Motion [Private Members]
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-26
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Louise O'Reilly (SF), Dublin Fingal West

I move:
That Dáil Éireann:
notes that there have been four major reviews and reports on the cost of disability, i.e., the additional costs to which disabilities give rise for individuals and their families, beginning with The Commission on the Status of Persons with Disabilities in 1996, the Indecon Report entitled "The Cost of Disability in Ireland" in 2021, the Government's failed Green Paper on the Cost of Disability in 2023, and the recent joint research project by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) and the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC) "Adjusting Estimates of Poverty for the Cost of Disability" in 2025;
further notes that the Government launched yet another consultation on the matter in February of this year;
recognises that households in which a member has a disability undergo significant additional costs, compared to households in which no member has a disability, with the ESRI/IHREC estimating a weekly cost of €488 - €555 on average;
affirms that no one in the State should be worse off socially, politically, or economically, because of their disability;
condemns the choice made by the Government in Budget 2026 to withdraw emergency supports from workers and families, including, in particular, the €1,400 worth of cost-of-living supports withdrawn from disabled people this year;
recognises that workers and families, including and especially those with disabilities, cannot wait until next year and Budget 2027 for supports, and that on the basis of their Budget 2026 experience they cannot trust the Government to deliver what is needed; and
calls on the Government to:
— immediately introduce an Emergency Budget with supports for workers and families, including a €500 lump sum for people with disabilities; and
— introduce, no later than Budget 2027, a new permanent cost of disability scheme, involving weekly payments for people with disabilities, whether they are in employment or not in employment, that recognises the additional costs to which their disabilities give rise.
I will be sharing my time.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-05-26/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:04+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-26