Deputy Ivana Bacik of the Social Democrats. Excuse me, Deputy Holly Cairns of the Social Democrats.

A second round.

I am sorry.

Go raibh maith agat, a Cheann Comhairle. Disabled people have been failed by this Government. In its record €9.4 billion budget, developers and fast food chains were prioritised. They have been handed tax breaks that will cost the State nearly €5 billion over the next four years. To help pay for that, the income of disabled people was slashed. According to the Disability Federation of Ireland, people's allowances have been reduced by €1,400. This is devastating for so many people who are barely scraping by. Successive Governments have ignored the rights of disabled people but their treatment by this Government feels particularly cruel. That is why so many people are protesting outside the Dáil today - they feel betrayed. Both the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste promised during the election that disabled people would be prioritised, but at the first available opportunity those commitments were abandoned. This Government seems to think income supports for disabled people are somehow optional, because they were cut to the bone.

We have heard a lot from this Government about the need to target resources at those who need them most. That was apparently the guiding principle behind this budget. That is a nice soundbite but it does not stand up to any scrutiny because we know that huge numbers of disabled people are living in poverty. Every day, people are struggling not just with the soaring costs we all face in energy, food and housing, but with the enormous additional cost of having a disability. This is why a weekly cost-of-disability payment is precisely the kind of support the Government should be prioritising, but instead of doing that, the Government did the opposite and reduced people's incomes, pushing them even further into poverty.

One of the many payments in the Minister's pre-election giveaway budget was a one-off cost-of-disability payment. A one-off payment for an everyday cost was obviously insulting enough, but then, incredibly, the Government abolished the payment entirely and did not replace it with anything, as if the costs of having a disability somehow disappeared overnight. It is nothe first time targeted supports for disability have been removed at the stroke of a pen. In 2013 personal transport grants for disabled people were abolished. At the time the Fine Gael-Labour Government said it would replace it immediately and more than a decade later there is still no sign of it.

One of the many payments in the Minister's pre-election giveaway budget was a one-off cost-of-disability payment. A one-off payment for an everyday cost was obviously insulting enough, but then, incredibly, the Government abolished the payment entirely and did not replace it with anything, as if the costs of having a disability somehow disappeared overnight. It is not the first time that targeted supports for disability have been removed at the stroke of a pen. In 2013, personal transport grants for disabled people were abolished. At the time, the Fine Gael-Labour Government said it would replace it immediately. More than a decade later, there is still no sign of it.

The people protesting today are telling the Government how they feel - how they feel about the litany of broken promises, how they feel about consistently being failed, and how they feel about their Government slashing their income by €1,400 in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis.

Thank you, Deputy.

The question is whether the Government is going to listen to them and whether it is going to act. These cuts were callous and cruel and should be reversed.

The Minister to respond.

Will the Government introduce a winter payment for disabled people and-----

The time is up, Deputy.

-----will it finally introduce a permanent cost-of-disability payment?

I thank Deputy Cairns. The Taoiseach chaired the first meeting of the delivery and monitoring committee for the National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People 2025-2030, where we are trying to work on a serious of actions to make sure we have a step-change in the provision of disability services over the lifetime of this Government. Budget 2026 was the first opportunity to show our commitment to this strategy and if we look at the funding achieved by the Minister, Deputy Foley, in the context of the disability budget, a 20% increase in funding was secured, which will deliver stronger mainstream services and also targeted social protection supports for households with disabilities.

The strategy is our roadmap to 2030 and sets out a series of measures that will be led from the Department of the Taoiseach.

The Deputy asked about social protection in particular. That is why, as part of the overall budgetary allocation, a €10 increase in weekly social welfare rates was progressed in budget 2026. We have also progressed the highest ever increases to the child support payment, a €20 increase in the domiciliary care allowance and a €5 increase in the fuel allowance. People moving from disability allowance or blind pension into work will also retain their fuel allowance for five years and, where relevant, will now qualify for the back to work family dividend. The earnings disregard for carer’s allowance will rise in July 2026. We have taken a number of measures in the social protection package to support people with disabilities. We will also expand the wage subsidy scheme from April 2026. As I said, we have taken a number of measures to improve the fuel allowance. In the education system, €3 billion is being allocated to special education for children with additional needs.

There are measures across the education system, social protection and the transport system, where the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, has advanced measures. Some €25 million is being allocated for accessibility improvements, the disabled drivers and passengers scheme is being increased, and a co-designed new scheme from next year will make more people eligible. We have taken a number of steps across multiple Departments to try to improve the day-to-day experience for people living with disabilities. Central to that has been the funding secured by the Minister, Deputy Foley, specifically for her budget to ramp up the level of intervention that we make for service provision. That was reflected in the work programme and the work that will happen next year in terms of the overall level of support and service provision for people with disabilities. Obviously, the work is ongoing on the budgetary provision for next year for the social protection package. We will consider, with engagement with everyone in the disability sector, further requests around different support payments. You have to take the social protection package in the round, and we did increase the core welfare rates significantly this year.

The Minister is saying there will be a committee to start looking at schemes. I want to highlight the fact there has been committee after committee after committee on disability, and there has been report after report after report, and they all have the same finding: there is a huge added cost to having a disability. We know that people with disabilities in Ireland are living in consistent poverty above and beyond other European countries. We know they have a lower chance of being employed as disabled persons in this country. The Government has had all the committees and reports it needs. People are outside protesting today to tell the Government that they just need action now. They do not need another committee or another report. They do not need to wait until the next budget. There is a cost-of-living crisis now. Disabled people were already disproportionately living in poverty, and now their payments have been cut.

I am going to again ask the Minister the two questions that I initially asked. Will the Government introduce an emergency winter disability payment? Will it finally introduce a permanent cost-of-disability payment? The last budget before this one recognised the cost of disability. Now, the Government has abandoned it.

I reject the assertion that we have had committees and no action has been taken. That is actually untrue. The 20% increase in funding for the Department of disability and the work the Minister, Deputy Foley, is now doing with the HSE on a new service plan will provide a significant improvement in the State's response to improve disability services in 2026. There is a record level of funding to support people with disabilities. When it comes to the Department of Social Protection, as I said, we introduced a series of measures around the fuel allowance, improving core welfare rates and increasing the domiciliary care allowance and back to work family dividend.

We have been clear that the budget we have agreed for 2026 is the settled allocation for next year. Of course, we will engage with all the stakeholders involved around budget 2027, and that will be considered as part of next year's budget. The payments referenced by the Deputy were one-off measures taken in previous years. We were clear in how we developed budget 2026 that the measures we would take had to be permanent, sustainable and affordable. We have made a significant intervention in the social protection package.