In last October's budget of €9.4 billion, the Government made the very cruel decision to leave disabled people worse off by €1,400. Since then, life has become so much harder for everybody, but all the more so if one is a disabled person who has fallen further and further behind. Our Dáil motion yesterday called on the Government to do two things. First, to deliver an emergency €500 cost of disability payment now and, second, to introduce a new permanent cost of disability scheme. Instead of listening, the Government pushed back. It rejected our motion and the amendment it brought forward is an insult to disabled people.

It is consultation after consultation and report after report for the Government, when it knows exactly what needs to be done and what the issues are. Yet, the Government tells disabled people to wait. It is the same for carers. At the rate the Government is going, it will take 30 years to abolish the means test for carers. There is no urgency at all.

Yesterday, the Government announced a new autism assessment protocol, but one of the first things from the mouth of the Minister for Health was that the Government will not have enough staff for the new assessment centres. Good God. Who announces new centres knowing that we do not have the staff to make them work? This is happening when more than 20,000 children are waiting for an assessment of needs, thousands of children with disabilities are waiting for therapies, supports and services, hundreds of children with additional needs are waiting for a school place and thousands of children are in inappropriate school placements.

Every single summer, parents face a battle to find an appropriate school place for their child the following September. Despite all of the big promises made by the Government, this summer is no different. Tonight in Cabra, in my community, parents will hold a meeting on this issue again. We will hear more stories of pressure and rejection letters piled high on the kitchen table. I know one mother who has received 17 rejection letters for her child. We will hear stories of children being offered school places that do not exist in classrooms that have not been opened or even built. Does the Government know what that does to a parent and child?

We will also hear anger that the window for July provision applications for summer educational support for children with additional needs was open for only one week this year. What is that all about? In previous years, the window was open for months. This unreasonable timeframe means that many children will miss out on vital educational support this summer. Why is the Government making life so difficult for these families? It needs to immediately reopen the application window to allow schools to get their applications in.

Tá Fianna Fáil agus Fine Gael ag teip ar dhaoine faoi mhíchumas agus páistí le riachtanais bhreise le blianta fada. Caithfear deireadh a chur leis. Tá sé in am don Rialtas meas a léiriú agus seirbhísí agus tacaíocht cheart a chur ar fáil.

The failure of people and children with additional needs is immense. I have raised several issues with the Taoiseach today, but I could go on and on. I appeal to the Taoiseach to deliver the cost of disability scheme, resource the new autism assessment centres, guarantee an appropriate school place for every child in September and, for goodness sake, immediately reopen the application window for July provision.

Hear, hear.

Ar dtús báire, ní aontaím leis an Teachta. Tá an-chuid déanta againn. Gan amhras, tá i bhfad níos mó le déanamh againn maidir le daoine le míchumas. Tagraím don infheistíocht atá curtha isteach againn, go háirithe sa cháinaisnéis anuraidh. Ba é an méadú is mó riamh in aon cháinaisnéis.

The investment in disability has been very strong. The last budget saw one of the largest ever increases in disability services, up to 20% of an increase, which is significant and is having an impact, in particular in terms of service providers who are providing services to people with disabilities.

In respect of the cost of disability, the Deputy is being somewhat disingenuous by pretending it is one consultation after another, the process is simple and the Government should just go and do it. It is not that simple. There could be over 1 million people who identify with a disability in the census, about 22% of the population. One can go through all of the various age categories. It is not that simple. The Minister, Deputy Calleary, as the Deputy knows, organised a significant public consultation which has received a significant number of responses.

I attended the strategic focus network summit on the cost of disability on 13 May. It brought together all of the key stakeholders to share perspectives and inform our approach. This is a significant and complex initiative. It is better that we do this in a structured and targeted way so that those most in need will avail of and benefit from it.

It is not just a once-off payment. That will not work on a sustainable basis

Work is under way now to bring together all of the views and evidence. The Minister, Deputy Calleary, will bring forward a paper in July in respect of the cost of disability payment arising out of all of that consultation. We will then assess that in the context of the Estimates for decisions in the next budget. As I said, the previous budget deliberately prioritised permanent structural supports that will endure in five and ten years' time. The core rates went up significantly. Child support payments went up dramatically again. For any child over 12, it went up by €16, to €78 a week, and for anybody under 12, it went up by €8, to €58 a week. There has been a sustained increase in child support payments over the last number of years.

On education, Deputy McDonald is deliberately ignoring the dramatic increases in resources in education in terms of special needs assistants, special education teachers and also classes.

The Government tried to cut them.

We will have places for children next September. As Deputy McDonald knows, with the decision of the early entry portal, many more applied than was anticipated and 6,000 children who are within existing mainstream schools applied for special class status, which will be provided for and very substantial additional resources have been allocated to meet that need.

Is that a guarantee?

No one can deny the extraordinary and very significant investment that has been made - rightly so - in special education.

Is the Government reopening the July provision?

It is quite significant.

Is the Government reopening the July provision?

The Deputy has an awful habit of interrupting. I have never interrupted her once in anything she says.

The Taoiseach mumbles. He does not enunciate clearly.

I beg your pardon?

You do not enunciate clearly. You mumbled. I did not hear what you said.

Okay, we will leave it. We will leave it.

That is shocking.

That is an appalling comment to make. A disgrace.

That is a new low. It is a new low.

I ask everybody to be respectful. There are a lot of people in the Gallery. I call Deputy McDonald.

These are important issues and it is important when the Head of Government addresses them that he is audible, clear and I can hear him. It is not a case of whether the Taoiseach agrees with me or not. He seems singularly unable to acknowledge the real experience of disabled people who are telling him, and have told him for quite some time, that they are struggling financially. At times, they have told stories of making choices between heating and eating. Even in scenarios that are not that extreme, they are under huge pressure. The Taoiseach is right. A one-off payment is not the be all and end all but they need that now. They also need a cost of disability scheme.

For all of the Taoiseach's palaver about what the Government has done and his clapping himself on his back, I have a letter here from one mother who is explaining what she is living through now because her child does not have the guarantee of a school place in September. She talks about watching time run out while everybody else's child moves forward and her frustration at having to repeatedly prove her child's need to the system.

I thank the Deputy. I call the Taoiseach to respond.

She talks about the uncertainty, the exhaustion, the guilt and the anger.

The Deputy's time is up. I call the Taoiseach.

Can the Taoiseach please tell everybody that he is guaranteeing a school place for every child? Is he reopening the July provision?

Deputy McDonald's time is up.

I recognise the issues facing people with disabilities. The first thing I did in government was to set up a special disability unit within my Department to prioritise and drive delivery of services and to improve them in every single Government Department and in a whole-of-government approach. We have established a Cabinet subcommittee on disability to deal with all aspects of public services and departmental responses and we have launched a human rights strategy in respect of disabled people. The prioritisation is clear and the investments have followed that prioritisation, especially in special education. There have been many more new special schools established in the past 12 months. There have been hundreds and hundreds of additional special classes added. Staff numbers are up 27% since 2020 in special education.

Will every child have a school place?

Stop interrupting.

We will have 26,000 special needs assistants by the beginning of the next school year. There will be 26,000 of them and I could go on.

The Taoiseach's time is up. I call Deputy Bacik.

We need to do more and we will do more, as we have with the school therapy services.