Written answer
Budget 2027
The Minister said targeted disability income supports for Budget 2027 remain under consideration, with no decisions yet on a permanent annual cost-of-disability payment’s design or eligibility. Consultation responses and a May summit are informing the budgetary process, alongside existing supports including Disability Allowance, Blind Pension and Invalidity Pension.
106. Deputy Peter 'Chap' Cleere asked the Minister for Social Protection the targeted income supports in relation to those with disabilities he is considering as part of Budget 2027 negotiations. [67299/26]
Comment on this
My Department provides a range of income supports for disabled people. These include social insurance based schemes such as Invalidity Pension and social assistance based schemes, such as Disability Allowance and Blind Pension.
As of August 2026, there are over 234,950 recipients of disability income support payments, with estimated expenditure of €3.44 billion in 2026.
Disability Allowance is my Department's primary social assistance payment for disabled people who are aged between 16 and 66. Over the last five budgets the Government has progressively improved payment rates and income disregards for disabled people. The weekly payment rates for Disability Allowance and Blind Pension have increased by €51 in that time. The earnings disregard has increased by almost 38% since Budget 2021 from €120 to €165 currently.
Supporting disabled people is a key priority for the Government. Both the Programme for Government and the National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People 2025 to 2030 include significant commitments in this regard including a commitment to introduce a permanent annual cost of disability payment.
A public consultation process on how a cost of disability payment can best be delivered was launched on Friday, February 20th and ran for just over six weeks until Tuesday April 7th.
The over 1,100 submissions helped inform the agenda for the Strategic Focus Network Summit on the Cost of Disability, which I hosted in the Aviva Stadium on the 13th of May. It was attended by 150 people in person, with approximately the same number joining online.
The Summit was also attended by members of the Oireachtas together with senior Government Ministers including the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste, the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality, the Minister of State for Disability and the Minister of State at the Department of Transport.
This whole of government approach is important as addressing these costs is not simply a matter of income supports alone. Improvements in the delivery of, and access to, key services are also needed.
On 16 July, I presented a briefing paper on the Summit to the Strategy's Delivery and Monitoring Committee which is chaired by the Taoiseach, and attended by other Government Ministers as well as Disabled Person's Organisations and representatives of Civil Society Groups.
The Summit and the submissions made through the consultation process are informing the approach to be taken in delivering on the Programme for Government commitment. No decisions have been made regarding the design or eligibility criteria of the payment at this stage as options are being considered as part of the budgetary process.
I trust this clarifies the issue for the Deputy.