I am glad that the Minister is here for this debate. I want to bring to him a message from my constituents in north County Dublin with regard to the BusConnects north coastal project. As the Minister will know - I understand he has engaged with the local group - the 33 bus is the main bus serving the towns of Rush, Lusk, Skerries and Loughshinny. The bus is frequently overcrowded. We have all heard many times about people left standing on the side of the road while the bus goes past because it is a single-decker wh…

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 (ES…

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…

The Minister of State said in his contribution that one payment would not resolve anything but if you have not got any money to pay for a taxi and you need to get to an appointment, a payment makes all the difference. What we have spoken about this evening is the money people with disabilities need to live. One payment makes a difference. A more permanent payment would absolutely make a difference but if he was listening to people with disabilities, the Minister of State would understand they were struggling right …

The budget last October left disabled people €1,400 per annum worse off in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis. For months, disabled people and their advocates have painstakingly and painfully told their stories. They tell us the choices they make daily. They are forced to choose between heating, eating and charging their vital mobility devices. Their appeals to the Government to deliver a cost-of-disability payment immediately have fallen on deaf ears. The Government says it needs to figure out what a cost-of-di…

I asked about a permanent payment.

He misunderstood, deliberately so I suspect.

The Taoiseach has had the report for five years.

You give them money and then run away.

I thank Deputy Ó Broin for putting forward this motion and for all the work he does in this area. It at least gives people hope to know somebody listens, cares, is paying attention and has a solution. Time and again, we see Government policy making the housing crisis it has created even worse. We warned it that its legislation would result in a surge in evictions. We warned it would contribute to the rising numbers of homelessness. The Government did not listen. It pressed ahead and, as it does, did the bidding of …

Hear, hear.

Who is going to negotiate if you are going to break promises?

There is evidence that it is broken.

With the cost of the bike shed, of course the Government can.

How many bike sheds-----

But it was not. The Minister should suigh síos. She has no answers.

I thank the Deputies for bringing forward the motion and using their Private Members' time to give us an opportunity to debate this important issue. The Minister of State, Deputy Buttimer, will know well that Sinn Féin has been calling for emergency measures to support workers and families experiencing an unprecedented cost-of-living crisis. Sinn Féin supports the call for an emergency budget. We have been calling for this for some time, and it is welcome to see other parties coming to the table to echo the call an…

There is nothing amusing-----

There is nothing amusing about-----

-----the poverty that people are living in at the moment.