Disabled people are “living in one room or going to local libraries to stay warm”, a protest outside Leinster House heard on Tuesday.
About 100 people attended the rally – a smaller number than anticipated by organisers the Irish Wheelchair Association (IWA), the Disability Federation of Ireland and Access for All, as many stayed home amid Storm Bram concerns.
Speakers described going without meals or deliberating whether to turn on one bar of heat or two on their gas heaters as they faced rising costs and the aftermath of losing a range of once-off payments and energy credits in this year’s budget.
Several said they needed extra warmth as they were less mobile than non-disabled people and had equipment like electric beds and power-chairs that need to be charged. Others had special diets.
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The coalition called for an “immediate emergency winter payment” for disabled people and the introduction of a permanent cost-of-disability payment next year.
A 2021 report by consultants Indecon and commissioned by the Department of Social Protection found additional costs of being disabled were up to €12,300 a year for essentials such as housing, heating, disability aids, care and transport.
Bernard Mulvaney, a carer for his disabled daughter and co-founder of Access for All, said on Tuesday: “People with disabilities are facing into the most horrendous winter.”
They had been left “at an absolute cliff edge” by the removal of “one-off payments”, including the additional disability support grant (€400); the additional €300 to recipients of fuel allowance and the October 2025 double payment of core welfare rates.
Joan Carthy, a wheelchair-user and IWA advocacy manager, could not understand why the Government “doesn’t get the urgency of the call for the winter payment”. Last year’s payments “actually made a difference to people’s lives”, she said, adding that some disabled people are “living in one room or going to local libraries to stay warm”.
Beyond an emergency winter payment she said: “We need a systematic change and we need money put in every single year for people with disabilities.”
Carolyn Akintola (61), a wheelchair user from Tallaght, said the additional costs she faced were “not lifestyle choices or niceties”.
“I need to use an electric bed, and an air alternator mattress – both would use a fair amount of power. By using those and meeting the electricity costs myself I am saving the State a hell of a lot of money, because pressure sores can mean hospital.”
She said disabled people’s “impairments are not once off ... they are not going away.
“Why do we have to spend our lives fighting constantly? We are human beings ... so-called equal citizens ... but I am not seeing a whole lot of equality.”
She lives in a housing association bungalow and has an income of €244 a week; fuel allowance of €33 a week for 28 weeks, and household benefits package worth €34.50 a month.
Last year’s payment were “a huge help”, she said. “But I would rather see a permanent recognition that our costs are higher.
“I don’t think the Government wants to see us. We are inconvenient, but we are here and we are getting loud.”
A spokesman for the Department of Social Protection said: “Improving the position and ensuring full participation of disabled people in Irish society is a priority for Government.
“Government is working to address these issues by bringing in permanent changes rather than relying on once-off measures.
“The department provides the supplementary welfare allowance scheme to those whose means are insufficient to meet their needs and those of their dependents.”
An “additional needs payment” can be made to anyone whose income does not meet essential expenditure, and a heat supplement payment is available “to those with exceptional, essential heating costs due to their age, medical condition or disability”, he said.
