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

I have seen that. I will get to that in a moment. The Minister should withdraw his shameful amendment, if for no other reason than because it is an insult to people with disabilities. Their voices are ignored and are entirely absent from the amendment. I have said it before and will say it again, people with disabilities are not disabled by their own bodies or their intellectual capacity. Rather, they are disabled by a society that is ablest and a society and Government that talks down to them. They are disabled by infrastructure that is hostile to their mobility. They are disabled by Government policy failing them time and time again. They are disabled because they are not listened to and the lived reality of their lives and needs is not responded to.
The amendment references consultation. I want to give the Minister a bit of feedback from a person who was at his most recent summit. Gillian Sherratt, who the Minister will know, had a son Harvey who, for his short life, was one of the many children with scoliosis utterly failed by the State. She wrote that at the Minister's summit the journalists got a chance to ask questions of the Ministers but people with disabilities, disabled persons' organisation representatives, carers and advocates did not get the same opportunity. That is not fair. It is not on. Government has deployed all of its delay and deflect tactics and that is why we had to bring forward this motion.
This motion calls for immediate intervention because the crisis is now. The motion takes into account the lived reality of people with disabilities and the real need for a cost of living emergency payment. The motion is about listening to people. The Minister's tone deaf amendment makes no reference to the fact that the budget left people with disabilities €1,400 worse off. He should acknowledge and face up to this and respond to the urgent pleas of disabled people who are making stark choices, whether the Minister chooses to acknowledge that. They have to use their immersions and electricity and charge their vital mobility devices. Some people need to maintain a constant temperature in the house, but cannot afford to do so.
A constituent of mine in Balrothery spoke about the statement from the Taoiseach that an emergency payment is not fiscally sustainable and that people with disabilities must wait for a permanent cost of disability payment in budget 2027. She said she is writing to tell the Minister that asking disabled people to wait is what is truly unsustainable.

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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