Recently the Minister’s party leader claimed the Social Democrats believe Ireland is a failed state. It seems as if he was literally making stuff up and saying it on national radio. I have always acknowledged the country's many positives and successes and I have consistently pointed out the profound sense of disconnect many people have as a result of that. This is a disconnect between a GDP that makes us one of the richest countries in the world and nearly 4,500 children growing up in emergency accommodation; a disconnect between full employment and 500,000 adults living in their childhood bedrooms; and a disconnect between a €24 billion surplus and nearly 600,000 people living in poverty. No, we are not a failed State but the Government is failing far too many people and that failure is not inevitable. It is not an accident either. It is a product of political choices that have been made at Cabinet tables in this Government and previous Governments, political choices about what to spend money on and how much, political choices that led to a 15% increase in the number of children experiencing deprivation last year alone, political choices that led to disability services becoming threadbare and dysfunctional, political choices that resulted in a failure to meet social and affordable housing targets every single year and political choices that have set us up to fail when it comes to meeting our climate targets.

This week’s budget was also full of choices about what to prioritise and what issues were deemed not so important. I listened to the Minister for the last few minutes trying to defend the €9 million that was allocated to schools to buy phone pouches. This was done because, fair enough, the Minister for Education wants schools to ban phones but she does not have the power to do that. We can all agree on the need to prioritise mental health and children's mental health but to prioritise phone pouches with regard to that does not make a whole lot of sense to most people. This is €9 million spent on a pet project that schools were not crying out for. It is a lot of money and could have done some real good. That €9 million could have been used to invest in special schools. There is not a single special school in my constituency of Cork South-West. The money could have been used to fund therapists in St. Killian’s Special School in Mayfield, which was promised supports from the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, that never materialised. There have been no occupational therapists, speech and language therapists or behavioural therapists in that special school or any other since 2020 when Fianna Fáil entered government. The Tánaiste said he disagreed with the decision that resulted in therapists being removed from schools. Well a Fianna Fáil Minister holds that brief, a Fianna Fáil TD is the disability Minister and Deputy Chambers is the Minister for Finance. What has been done about it? Nothing, as far as I can see while children with additional needs are repeatedly failed - failed not by anonymous systems but by political choices. Does the Minister at the very least accept that his Government has failed these children with additional needs?

I acknowledge the difficulties many families face when it comes to accessing therapies, supports and assessments of need in communities across the country. This is something I see in my constituency office. I know all of us collectively share the priority in trying to advance progress when it comes to people with additional needs and disabilities.

The Deputy referenced what the Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, has sought to advance in budget 2025. There has been an unprecedented investment of €11.8 billion in education and schools in budget 2025. The education budget contains €2.9 billion of funding for special education, which will make a difference for those with additional needs and support the provision of additional places and progress for many families and children. The provision of free school books to all students in the senior cycle makes a difference when it comes to the affordability of education across our school system. There has been a €75 million increase in capitation funding, which supports schools and communities across our country that need improved core budgets. There is over €100 million in additional funding for the school transport system and there are 1,600 more SNAs and 750 additional special education teachers. That makes a difference for students with additional needs, particularly in the special education area. This is why we have sought to advance that in the context of budget 2025.

The Deputy referenced the investment in mobile phone pouches. As I said to Deputy Doherty, this is about investing in wider support for mental health and well-being in schools. We need a practical outworking to this initiative. Parents have reflected concerns about this at second level for many years. This enables schools to implement such a policy by supporting them.

The Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, has been steadfast in securing a much greater disability budget. If we look at the investment in disability since 2019, we can see it has increased by 52%. There is a clear commitment on the part of this Government to help support those with disabilities and their families. Not only are we speaking about the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities, we are ensuring that the increase in spending is delivering real improvements in the lives of children with additional needs. This year, there is a record €3.2 billion of funding in the disability area. There is a focus on assessments of need, therapies and ensuring we recruit the front-line staff, who do make a difference. I recognise that the wait times for many children with disabilities are too long in communities across our country and that they are not getting the level of intervention they require but the investment and the prioritisation from the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, will increase the number of front-line workers in the CDNTs, which will help through the budget we have allocated.

The Taoiseach told disabled people that they would feel seen in this budget and in his reply, the Minister said we all share the feeling that it needs to be prioritised. Does the Minister genuinely think that children and their families who are waiting to access CDNTs feel prioritised or seen in this budget? Does he think that the people who hoped that the motorised transport grant for disabled people that was axed over a decade ago might be reintroduced in this budget feel seen? We have the lowest employment rates for disabled people in Europe. Does the Minister think those people feel seen in this budget? Was anything done for them? Does he think that disabled people who will get the one-off payment feel seen when someone has a disability for 365 days of the year? Does he think that is an attempt by this Government to prioritise disabled people or make them feel seen?

When we got the budget announcement last year, we heard from the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, that there was an allocation of €195.1 million. The then Minister for Finance at the time, Michael McGrath, said it was €200 million. After the journalist Ailbhe Conneely examined it a bit more closely and got answers from the Department, it turned out that it was actually only an additional €64 million. Can the Minister give me an exact figure of how much of the figure he highlighted is actually additional funding this year or will we have to leave it up to journalists to establish the reality of the allocation for disability this year?

As I said in my previous answer, this year's budget is a record €3.2 billion, which is an increase of 11.6% on 2024. That has been set out to me by the Department involved. What this will result in is further progress on many of the initiatives established by the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte. In the first half of this year, regarding the waiting lists initiative, there has been improvement in the number of assessments of need completed, which is a 28% increase on the same period last year. Regional hubs have been established across the country and are operational and there is strong oversight from the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, to ensure there is delivery and much greater progress in terms of oversight with all of the various CHO teams across the country.

Through this budget, there will be further progress for people with disabilities this year and next year. We have a substantial cost-of-living package complemented by core social protection allocations from the Minister for Social Protection that are very specifically focused on people with disabilities, their carers and their families. This Government wants to do more, particularly to support improvement in front-line interventions for those who have been waiting too long.