Social Democrats TD Eoin Hayes has said that October’s Budget must have a permanent cost of disability payment.
The Dublin Bay South TD said that people with disabilities often suffer from the highest level of deprivation and poverty rates, and with the government’s mood music indicating that a difficult Budget is in store, Hayes insisted that people with disabilities are not left behind.
Hayes said it was “time for this government to treat disabled people with the basic respect they deserve.”
The Soc Dems TD also needled the government on backtracking on their promise to introduce a permanent cost of disability support payment in this year’s Budget, after it was conspicuously absent last year.
Hayes said that people with disabilities are often “socially excluded, isolated, and treated as an afterthought by the state.”
“Since the last election, this government has delivered nothing for disabled people other than empty promises and huge cuts to their income, leaving one of the most vulnerable groups in Irish society feeling desperate, ignored and insulted,” he said.
Hayes noted that last year’s Budget cut the annual income of disabled people by €1,400, despite ongoing cost of living and energy crises.
Both cost of living and energy prices have risen sharply since the American and Israeli bombings of Iran started in February, and Hayes said that people with disabilities can’t afford another winter of limited government support.
“Earlier this year, the government ignored the Social Democrats’ calls for targeted supports. During a Dáil debate on our motion for an emergency winter payment of €400, the Minister for Social Protection was dismissive of disabled people’s own accounts of their lived experiences, describing them as ‘misleading and dangerous,” Hayes remarked.
“The government’s public consultation process and this week’s summit on a cost of disability payment are a welcome step in the right direction, but must be backed with real commitments and supports,” he said.
“Disabled people’s organisations have engaged with the department on this issue in good faith. This summit must result in real action and be more than just another talking shop.”