Social Democrats TD Eoin Hayes has called on the Minister for Social Protection to withdraw and apologise for misguided comments he made in the D\u00e1il this morning during a debate on the cost of having a disability in Ireland.<\/p>\n
Deputy Hayes, who is the party\u2019s spokesperson on social protection, said:<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring today’s debate on our party motion \u2013 which called for an emergency payment of \u20ac400 to be issued within a month to people with disabilities \u2013 Minister Calleary made some extraordinary comments.<\/p>\n
\u201cDespite the fact that our motion was informed by the lived experiences of disabled people, the minister bizarrely declared today that nobody in Ireland needs to go without food or heating for financial reasons. To add insult to injury, he said he didn\u2019t want a \u2018misleading or dangerous message\u2019 going out that people are having to choose between eating or heating their homes.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis remarks were highly insensitive and completely tone deaf. Who exactly was the minister directing his comments at? The Irish Wheelchair Association? The Disability Federation of Ireland?<\/p>\n
\u201cThese organisations have been to the forefront in calling for an emergency winter payment after this government\u2019s last budget left disabled people \u20ac1,400 worse off a year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was despite a Programme for Government commitment to commence the process of introducing a permanent cost of disability payment \u2013 something it failed to do in its first budget. Instead, it left disabled people worse off in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, with energy and food prices continuing to skyrocket.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis government claims it recognises the additional cost of having a disability. Yet it is refusing to support our motion, which aims to offer temporary support to disabled people this winter until such a time a permanent cost of disability payment is introduced.<\/p>\n
\u201cA mere month after the Society of St Vincent de Paul reported record demand for its supports, Minister Calleary seems completely oblivious to the lived reality of so many in this country.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis contention that supplementary allowances – which were granted to just 3,000 people last year – would be sufficient for the hundreds of thousands of people reliant on disability payments is risible and misleading in the extreme.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe minister should withdraw the comments he made today, which further underscore how out of touch this government is with disabled people\u2019s needs.\u201d<\/p>\n
January 28, 2026<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Social Democrats TD Eoin Hayes has called on the Minister for Social Protection to withdraw and apologise for misguided comments he made in the D\u00e1il this morning during a debate on the cost of having a disability in Ireland. Deputy Hayes, who is the party\u2019s spokesperson on social protection, said: \u201cDuring today’s debate on our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":15150,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[499,796,7,721],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-disability","category-eoin-hayes","category-press-release","category-social-protection"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n