Tully highlights living costs for disabled people

A local Senator is continuing to advocate for people with disabilities.

Pauline Tully recently joined protesters outside Leinster House who are demanding an urgent payment to help offset additional costs associated with living with a disability.

The Sinn Féin senator followed this up by highlighting the issues facing disabled people in the Seanad.

She spoke about how angry protesters are that government parties used disability services and costs in their GE 2024 campaigns but have since actually removed the extra payments that helped.

The former Sinn Féin spokesperson for disability also highlighted the report commissioned by government on the cost of disabilities, which “they have left gathering dust since”.

At the protest outside government buildings Sen Tully heard from disabled people who told her they regularly “have to decide whether to heat or eat”.

Sen Tully said she spoke to one man who told her he has to consider if he can afford to put on the second bar in his heater in the evening.

“They talked about the embarrassment of having to go to a food bank to get food,” Sen Tully said.

In 2021, the government commissioned an independent report on the cost of disability, and it found that the cost to a family with a disabled member was anything from €8,000 to €12,000 per year.

“They reckon that will now increase to €15,000 in some cases depending on the complexity of the disability,” Sen Tully said in the Upper House. “It is not the first report on disabilities that is left gathering dust,” she added.

Sen Tully pointed to how not only is there no cost of disability payment, but that disabled people also don’t receive energy credits.

“Disabled people want a definite payment they don’t want to be going from budget-to-budget wondering ‘are we going to get anything this year to help address the cost of living?’ but they welcome any sort of payment at this stage,” the exasperated senator said.

Sen Tully finished by calling for a cost of disability payment “so that people are not living in poverty as that is what they are being forced to do at the moment,” she said.