Budget 2025
DFI's Pre-Budget Submission 2025: No time to delay - Disability Rights in Budget 2025
In 2020, this government promised that “ever since Ireland ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, we have signalled to those with a disability that we are now serious about making a difference – a difference that will make things better.”[1] While progress is being made with the transfer of departmental disability functions in 2023 and a forthcoming National Disability Strategy, the experience of people with disabilities continues to be one of financial precarity and social exclusion. Our pre-budget submission sets out a series of actions to address these fundamental issues.
This is the last budget of the current government. A last chance to implement Programme for Government commitments, and to leave a positive legacy: contributing to advancing the UN CRPD.
Change is possible. Positive reform that addresses the structural barriers and lack of universal design in society, as well as income inadequacy, is urgently needed. Our government can make different choices and prioritise disability in Budget 2025.
Read our Pre-Budget Submission here.
Read the longer version of our Pre-Budget Submission 2025 for more detail on what we are asking.
DFI's Pre-Budget Submission to the Department of Social Protection
Year in and year out, disabled people live with permanent and deep economic precarity, deprivation and poverty. Despite another likely budget surplus in 2024, many people with disabilities are still left to survive on below the poverty line incomes that have been eroded by inflation. And the ‘full employment’ currently being experienced glosses over the fact that our disability employment rates remain amongst the worst in the EU.
Last year 1 in 2 people unable to work due to long standing health difficulty (disability) lived in enforced deprivation, unable to afford basic essentials like heating, new clothes, or socialising with friends or family.
Something is wrong with our social protection system if it accepts that to be disabled to the extent that you cannot work means that you will struggle to get by on an inadequate income for the rest of your life.
Read our submission to the Department of Social Protection on Budget 2025 here.
Pre-Budget Submissions from DFI Member Organisations
Acquired Brain Injury Ireland
Acquired Brain Injury Ireland is seeking a €2m allocation in the 2025 budget and a commitment to:
- Fund a national brain injury case management service that will reach every person with a brain injury, regardless of where they live by providing an additional 20 posts
- Support young people with brain injuries to move out of nursing homes, through the ongoing implementation of the recommendations in the Ombudsman’s ‘Wasted Lives’ report
- Urgently prioritise funding for Section 39 organisations by instituting pay parity with the HSE and resolving the funding crisis facing the sector.
Click here to read their pre-Budget submission.
Alzheimer’s Society
The Alzheimer Society of Ireland (The ASI) is calling on Government to improve equity of access to dementia supports and services across Ireland.
Click here to read their Pre-Budget Submission
Care Alliance Ireland
Care Alliance Ireland’s Pre-Budget Statement for Budget 2025 summarises three key priorities which, would continue to progress the development of services and supports for Ireland’s over 500,000 family carers.
- Priority 1: Funded Policy Development
- Priority 2: Funding of Services and Supports
- Priority 3: Addressing Poverty and Income Inequality
Click here to read their Pre-Budget Statement of Priorities
Click here to read their Statement of Priorities for Social Protection
Cheshire Ireland
In their Pre-Budget Submission, Cheshire Ireland ask that the Disability Services Action Plan be implemented, particularly the provisions on intensive care packages and residential care places. Additionally, they are calling for disability organisations to be supported through pay parity and multi-annual funding.
Click here to read their Pre-Budget Submission
Debra Ireland
Debra Ireland’s Budget ask is to ring-fence €600,000 for EB home nursing care and invest a further €95,000 to ensure holistic integrated care in line with the vision of Sláintecare.
Click here to read their Pre-Budget Submission
Family Carers Ireland
Family Carers Ireland are calling for a new social contract for care, with a range of proposals to support family carers in Budget 2025.
Click here to read their Pre-Budget Submission
FASD Ireland
DFI’s newest member has issued a Pre-Budget Submission that advocates for continued investment in FASD Ireland, increased FASD research in an Irish context and awareness-raising of Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) through a comprehensive awareness education programme aimed at students in secondary and tertiary education. They also call for the establishment of an Alcohol Related Harm Fund that will support those living with FASD and contribute to a reduction in the prevalence of the disorder.
Click here to read their Pre-Budget Submission
Irish Heart Foundation
The Irish Heart Foundation is calling on Government to prioritise initiatives that promote public health, patient wellbeing, and environmental sustainability.
Click here to read their Pre-Budget Submission
Irish Wheelchair Association
The Irish Wheelchair Association has launched its pre-budget submission calling on the government to make their last budget of the 33rd Dáil a positive legacy and not leave people with disabilities behind again.
Click here to read their submission.
Mental Health Reform
Together with their 85 members, Mental Health Reform are calling on the Government to prioritise funding for mental health in the upcoming budget.
The theme of their pre-budget campaign this year is "I am a Reason". This is a continuation of last year’s theme. Through this campaign, MHR aim to highlight the many reasons why the Government should invest in mental health in Budget 2025. These include the importance of timely, high-quality mental health supports and the need for sustainable and multi-annual funding for the voluntary and community sector.
The MHR Pre-Budget submission will be available on 30 July following it's launch.
Click here to read their Pre-Budget Submission
Multiple Sclerosis Society of Ireland
Summary of MS Ireland's key asks for Budget 2025:
- Sustainable funding for national physiotherapy services for people with Multiple Sclerosis, and other neurological conditions totalling €880,000 per annum or €94,000 per CHO.
- An increase of €627,000 in annual investment in the National MS Respite Centre.
Click here to read their Pre-Budget Submission
Neurological Alliance of Ireland (NAI)
The Neurological Alliance of Ireland has submitted its Pre Budget Submission, on the theme of #rightplace calling for funding to begin to address the regional inequity in access to neurology and neurorehabilitation services. The Submission focuses on tackling regional inequity in access to neurological care. Recent Budgets have seen welcome investment in neurology and neurorehabilitation services, but more needs to be done to tackle the stark regional inequity, where access to neurological care is dependent on where you live.
Click here to read their Pre-Budget Submission
Parkinson’s Ireland
Parkinson's Ireland is calling on the government to address the increasing rate of Parkinson's Disease, by increasing the funding it provides to Parkinson’s Ireland, and by investing further in neurological care services within the HSE.
Click here to read their Pre-Budget Submission
Rehab Group
Rehab Group carried out 49 in-depth focus groups with more than 460 people who use their services across the country to develop their Budget asks. Their submission sets out the concerns of the people who use their services and their priorities for Budget 2025. It also outlines the funding challenges Rehab Group faces as one of the largest disability service providers in the country and calls for urgent action to address these.
Click here to read their Pre-Budget Submission Summary
Vision Ireland
Vision Ireland’s Pre-Budget Submission highlights eight asks across government departments- Mental Health, Health, Social Protection, Revenue, Transport, Sector Reform.
Click here to read their Pre-Budget Submission
Joint Pre-Budget Submissions with DFI and other groups/orgs
Home Care Coalition
The main ask for the Home Care Coalition in Budget 2025 is an increase of €327m in funding for home care provision. They are also calling for pay parity to address the recruitment and retention crisis for home support providers. They reiterate their primary aim of an adequately resourced, rights-based, and person-centred, statutory home care scheme with equality of access and availability to home support services across the country and the new Health Regions.
Click here to read their Pre-Budget Submission
Oireachtas Disability Group (ODG)
The Oireachtas Disability Group, ODG, is comprised of Disabled Persons’ Organisations (DPOs), organisations representing service providers and advocacy organisations (Including DFI). We work to advance the full implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) through our collaboration with Members of the Oireachtas.
We present here the urgent priorities for disabled people that are needed to make rights real in Budget 2025.
Click here to read their Pre-Budget Submission
Other relevant Pre-Budget Submissions
ALONE
ALONE’s Pre-Budget Submission for 2025 focuses on several key areas to support older people in Ireland, including an increase in the state pension and an action plan to combat loneliness among older people. These measures aim to address the financial, social, and health challenges faced by older people, ensuring they can live independently and with dignity.
Click here to read their Pre-Budget Submission
Disability Matters Joint Oireachtas Committee
The Committee’s Pre-Budget Submission reiterates its work on reform and equity through investment in initiatives that will achieve the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).
Among its recommendations are adoption of universal design for products, services, ICT, and buildings, implement an early intervention model for Children’s Disability Services, sustainable and holistic funding for disability service providers, and a framework for the statutory provision of personal assistance services.
Click here to read their Pre-Budget Submission
European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN) Ireland
European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN) Ireland is a network of almost 160 local, regional and national anti-poverty organisations and individuals. Their submission calls for measures which contribute toward Ireland meeting its anti-poverty commitments in Budget 2025.
Click here to read their Pre-Budget Submission
Friends of the Earth
Friends of the Earth have issued a Pre-Budget Submission that calls for action to align Ireland with its climate obligations through significant reforms of several sectors including energy poverty. They propose a comprehensive retrofitting scheme to address energy inefficiency in housing, while also tackling fossil fuel dependence, high energy costs and inadequate income as structural causes of energy poverty.
Click here to read their Pre-Budget Submission
Inclusion Ireland
Inclusion Ireland are calling for political leaders to stand up for children with a specific budget to develop a six-year inclusive education strategic plan.
Click here to read their Pre-Budget Submission
Independent Living Movement Ireland
Independent Living Movement Ireland call for investment in key policy areas identified by their members to progressively implement the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).
Click here to read their Pre-Budget Submission
Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU)
The Irish Congress of Trade Unions note in their pre-Budget Submission that a longer-term strategic and structural approach should determine budgetary policy, the approach to the provision of public services, to welfare policy and to the sustainability of the Irish tax base. Consequently, they propose several measures including greater labour market participation for all and benchmarking of social welfare rates to ensure economic and social stability.
Click here to read their Pre-Budget Submission
National Disability Services Association (NDSA)
The National Disability Services (NDS) has released its Pre-Budget Submission for 2025, focusing on several key areas to improve the lives of people with disabilities, such as Funding for Disability Services, Employment Support and Health and Wellbeing. These budget priorities aim to address the systemic barriers that people with disabilities face and to promote a more inclusive society.
Click here to read their Pre-Budget Submission
National Women’s Council of Ireland
In their Pre-Budget Submission 2025, the National Women’s Council of Ireland has identified several critical areas where structural investment and reform are needed, and advocate for these recommendations as a crucial step towards gender equality in Ireland
Click here to read their Pre-Budget Submission
Social Justice Ireland
Social Justice Ireland calls for Budget 2025 to focus on building resilience across our society and economy through investment in our infrastructure, services and people. It also proposes that Budget 2025 be guided by one core principle: that the measures adopted prioritise the protection of the most vulnerable groups in Irish society.
Click here to read their Pre-Budget Submission
The Society of St. Vincent de Paul
The Society of St. Vincent de Paul submission highlights several key areas of concern and makes recommendations that will have the biggest impact on people’s lives in addressing poverty and social exclusion in Ireland.
Click here to read their Pre-Budget Submission
The Wheel
The overarching focus of The Wheel’s submission is on the measures that create a sustainable and thriving sector. It also includes analysis of socioeconomic conditions in which the sector operates and specific proposals that address the challenges faced by organisations and the people they serve.
Click here to read their Pre-Budget Submission
Note: Please do check back as our page will be updated right up to and after Budget 2025 including pre-budget submissions and post-Budget reactions.