Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 9 December 2025
284. Deputy Paul Lawless asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance if he will commission a review of Budget 2026's impact on disabled households, particularly during the winter months, compared with what Budget 2025 offered in comparison; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [69592/25]
View answer287. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance if his Department produced any analysis in advance of Budget 2026 on the net financial position of disabled households after the withdrawal of once off supports including the electricity credits, fuel lump sums, disability cost-of-living payment and living alone lump sum; and if he will publish this analysis. [69175/25]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 284 and 287 together.
Government recognises the additional economic burden faced by households affected by disability, particularly in the context of elevated cost of living pressures over recent years. It is for this reason that Government has introduced targeted budget measures to support vulnerable households.
While no specific analysis was conducted on the net financial position of disabled households, the Department of Finance did conduct distributional analysis to examine the impact of proposed tax and welfare measures on a range of households. As with previous budgets this analysis was conducted throughout the decision-making process for Budget 2026. Ex-post distributional analysis of the final budget measures was then published in the Beyond GDP – Quality of Life Assessment on budget day.
The Department’s analysis compares new tax and welfare measures in Budget 2026 against a baseline of permanent measures in Budget 2025. The analysis finds that households with disabilities gain more (1½ per cent on average) than non-disability households (0.6 per cent). Furthermore, lower income households affected by disability see a larger increase in their disposable income than high income households.
Similar analysis conducted by the ESRI also shows evidence of declining poverty rates for most groups. Indeed, the ESRI analysis shows that over the past six budgets even when excluding cost of living measures the lowest income households have seen income gains ahead of both price and wage growth.
I am confident that the measures introduced by this Government as part of the last number of Budgets have helped to drive improvements in equality and reductions in poverty.
