Louise O'Reilly urges the government to withdraw an amendment she calls an insult to people with disabilities and demands an immediate cost of living emergency payment. She criticises government consultation processes, highlights testimony from constituents, and warns that the Budget left disabled people €1,400 worse off.
Summary
Louise O'Reilly directly challenges the amendment brought by the government, arguing it ignores and silences people with disabilities. She says the amendment fails to reflect lived experience and that consultation at a recent summit privileged journalists over disabled people, DPO representatives, carers and advocates.
Voices excluded at the summit
O'Reilly cites feedback from Gillian Sherratt, whose son Harvey was failed by the state, to illustrate how consultation was unequal. She says ministers allowed journalists to question them while people with disabilities and advocates were denied the same opportunity.
Why immediate intervention is needed
The motion O'Reilly presents calls for immediate intervention because she says the crisis is already happening. She argues the government has used delay and deflect tactics and that people with disabilities urgently need a cost of living emergency payment now, not a promise for Budget 2027.
Impact on daily life
O'Reilly outlines the practical consequences for disabled people: paying to run immersion pumps, charging mobility devices, maintaining necessary home temperatures. She highlights that the Budget left many people with disabilities €1,400 worse off and quotes a constituent who says asking disabled people to wait is truly unsustainable.
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You should withdraw your shameful amendment. If for no other reason than it is an insult to people with disabilities, their voices are ignored and entirely absent from this amendment. I have said it before and I will say it again here this evening. People with disabilities are not disabled by their own bodies or by their intellectual capacity. They are disabled by a society that is ableist, by a society and a government that talks down to them. They are disabled by infrastructure that is hostile to their mobility. They are disabled by government policy failing them time and time again. They are disabled because they are not listened to and the lived reality of their lives and their needs is not responded to. In your amendment you reference consultation and I want to give you a bit of feedback from a person who was at your most recent summit. Gillian Sherratt, and you will know Gillian, her son Harvey for his short life was one of the many children failed, one of the many kids with scoliosis utterly failed by the state and she wrote that at your summit the journalists got a chance to ask questions of the ministers. But the people with disabilities, the DPO representatives, the carers and the advocates did not get the same opportunity. That's not fair Minister, it's not on because the government have deployed all their delay and deflect tactics and that is why we had to bring this motion. This motion calls for immediate intervention now because the crisis is now. This motion takes into account the lived reality of people with disabilities and the real need for a cost of living emergency payment now. This motion is about listening to people and Minister your Tone Deaf amendment makes no reference to the fact that the budget left people with disabilities €1,400 worse off. You should acknowledge this Minister, you should face up to this and you should respond to the urgent pleas of disabled people who are making stark choices Minister whether you choose to acknowledge that or not. They have to use their immersions, they have to use their electricity, they have to charge their vital mobility devices. Some people need to maintain a constant temperature in their house and they cannot afford it. I want to quote a Minister from a constituent of mine living in Balrodsbury, she was talking about the statement from the Taoiseach that an emergency payment is not fiscally sustainable and that people with disabilities must wait for a permanent cost of disability payment in Budget 2027. She says, I am writing to tell you that asking disabled people to wait is what is truly unsustainable.
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