Today\u2019s announcement of a public consultation on the cost of having a disability should not distract from the fact that the government continues to ignore calls for an emergency winter payment for disabled people, according to Social Democrats TD Eoin Hayes.<\/p>\n
Deputy Hayes, who is the party\u2019s spokesperson on social protection, said:<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile I hope this consultation signals a genuine move by the government to introduce a permanent cost of disability payment in the next budget, it will do nothing to help those who are struggling right now with high energy bills and rising food prices.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 2025 Programme for Government committed to the introduction of a permanent annual cost of disability support payment, which would be increased incrementally. Yet in its first budget, the government failed to commence this process and instead cut the incomes of disabled people and left them worse off by \u20ac1,400 a year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was a cruel betrayal of people with disabilities, who are among the most socially excluded and disadvantaged citizens in the State, with some of the highest poverty, deprivation and unemployment rates. One in five disabled people live in consistent poverty \u2013 nearly four times the national average \u2013 while almost 40 per cent live in enforced deprivation.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter consulting with the Disability Federation of Ireland, the Irish Wheelchair Association and other organisations, the Social Democrats brought forward a D\u00e1il motion in January seeking an emergency winter payment of \u20ac400. This would have served as a stop-gap measure until such a time that a permanent cost of disability is put in place.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot only did the government not support our motion, but Social Protection Minister Dara Calleary accused us \u2013 and, by extension, disability organisations \u2013 of putting out the \u2018misleading or dangerous message\u2019 that people are having to choose between eating or heating their homes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s difficult to see how the minister\u2019s public consultation will tell us anything we don\u2019t already know. The need for a cost of disability payment was identified as far back as 2004, something that was reaffirmed in the Indecon research report in 2021. This estimated the extra cost of living with a disability to be between \u20ac8,700 to \u20ac12,300, which could be as high as \u20ac14,830 today when adjusted for inflation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis consultation must result in meaningful, permanent supports for disabled people and not just be a PR stunt where the government simply wants to be seen to be doing something.\u201d<\/p>\n
February 20, 2026<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Today\u2019s announcement of a public consultation on the cost of having a disability should not distract from the fact that the government continues to ignore calls for an emergency winter payment for disabled people, according to Social Democrats TD Eoin Hayes. Deputy Hayes, who is the party\u2019s spokesperson on social protection, said: \u201cWhile I hope […]<\/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-16236","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