Willie O'Dea
Question:684. Deputy Willie O'Dea asked the Minister for Social Protection his additional plans to financially assist people with disabilities during 2026; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3396/26]
View answerTuesday, 20 January 2026
Questions (684)
Written answers
My Department provides a suite of income supports for those who are unable to work due to an illness or disability. The purpose of these payments is to provide income support for people experiencing specific contingencies that limit their ability to earn an income.
The Government recognises the significant additional costs that disabled people can face in their daily lives and is committed to improving outcomes for disabled people by introducing permanent measures.
Over the last five budgets the Government has progressively improved payment rates and income disregards for disabled people. The weekly payment rates for Disability Allowance have increased by €51 in that time. The earnings disregard has increased by almost 38% since Budget 2021 from €120 to €165 currently.
In Budget 2026, I provided for a €1.15 billion package of new social protection measures. This contained significant targeted measures to support disabled people, including:
• A €10 increase in the weekly rates of payment, bringing the personal rates of payment to €254 per week from this month.
• A Christmas bonus double payment to all persons getting a long-term disability payment, paid in December 2025.
• The highest ever increases in the Child Support Payment – an increase of €16 to €78 for children aged 12 or over, and of €8 to €58 for children under 12 from this month.
• A €5 increase in the Fuel Allowance, bringing it to €38 per week from this month.
• People moving from Disability Allowance or Blind Pension to take up work will be able to retain their Fuel Allowance payment for five years.
• People getting Disability Allowance or Blind Pension who have children will be eligible for Back to Work Family Dividend when taking up employment and moving off those payments.
• Expansion of the Wage Subsidy Scheme to people who acquire a disability while in employment and to those who transfer from Invalidity Pension to Partial Capacity Benefit.
• Wage Subsidy Scheme rates will be increased from April.
The Government also allocated €3.8 billion to the Department of Children, Disability and Equality for disability services in 2026, including funding for Community Based Specialist Disability Services.
The Programme for Government includes a range of commitments to support disabled people. This includes a commitment to introduce a permanent Annual Cost of Disability Support Payment. These commitments will be advanced over the lifetime of the Government, having regard to the overall policy and budgetary context.
In addition, under the National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People 2025-2030, my Department established a Strategic Focus Network on the Cost of Disability. While it is led by my Department, it includes other Government departments in this cross-government endeavour, and will also include people with disabilities and their advocates.
I have asked my officials to prioritise this work with a view to bringing a proposal to Government in the first half of this year. Officials have held meetings with a number of organisations in relation to this initiative. The views of disabled people and all relevant research, including the Indecon and ESRI reports will be given due consideration as we progress this work.