AS THE SUMMER draws to a close and the evenings shorten, there are many colourful pre-budget kites flying across the sky.

Budget day has been announced for 7 October. Every conversation and soundbite from the government is about managing expectations. They have already confirmed that there will be no one-off cost of living payments included in Budget 2026 as need to be cautious this year, given global economic uncertainty and Donald Trump’s trade tariffs. 

Our members at Inclusion Ireland; people with an intellectual disability and their families, are weary. Our latest survey of 1,000 people suggests that over the last decade, there is a deepening divide in our society. Communities like ours are facing exclusion, discrimination and have a sense that we are, yet again, being left behind.

Whilst the majority of our community surveyed wanted a home of their own, 90% of the individuals had no state funded support to make this happen. What this means, in real terms, is that in many instances, people with intellectual disabilities live with family members until their parents get critically ill or die.

‘Crisis’ focus

In those traumatic circumstances, the disabled person may be offered “residential care” in a shared/group home. Some of our members have been offered places a hundred kilometres away, thus removing the person from their natural supports and community. At worst, the person may end up in a nursing home or even long stay in hospital until the state puts a plan in place.

This relentless “crisis” focus is an absolute stain on our society. The solutions are plain to see and are well documented by our organisation and many others. Earlier planning with people before an entirely predictable “crisis” hits, multi-annual funding, a focus on individualised and personalised budgets along with joined-up, meaningful work across housing and HSE funded services. Last but not least, legislative reform to enshrine the right to live in the community as per our obligations under the UNCRPD. 

I spoke to our members recently about why our focus at Inclusion Ireland is relentlessly on human rights and not on charity. We have a long history in Ireland of perceiving disability “issues” as something which must be addressed through charitable acts of benevolence from the state.

This has caused untold damage. It has allowed a strong narrative to prevail that disabled people, and their families are people to be “helped” rather than rights holders. This has in turn allowed people to be devalued and further excluded from the most basic of rights that most people living in Ireland get to take for granted; your child will go to school in September, you will at some point move out of your family home and into a home of your own, you will live above the poverty line with dignity.

In a way, the budgetary once-off measures have compounded this narrative further. The state says when “we can, we will help” by giving you a once-of payment. What our members are calling for is long-term, sustainable, human rights-focused solutions, not band aid fixes.

Meaningful change

We need to address the systemic barriers, root and branch, that impede access to a good life. We need bravery from our leaders to stomp out inefficiencies in our systems, to insist that it is actually entirely possible to respect human rights and give certainty to people and their families in a small, wealthy, country. It is all about political will and choices.

We are not naïve at Inclusion Ireland. One budget cycle will not fix the real issues faced by our members. What a budget does, however, is send a clear message about what is actually important to Government and who is valued. If Government is keen on delivering the step change it has promised to disabled people and their families, then the budget day announcements need to meaningfully reflect this. 

There are many intersectional and related challenges facing us as a society right now. The housing crisis, climate injustice, rise of the far right, racism and ableism, transphobia. What everyone has in common in this state is that our lives would be made immeasurably better through delivery of functioning public services and supports that are responsive, integrated, community focused and that tackle the root causes of poverty, exclusion, ill health and homelessness.

Rather than us turning on one another, we should turn towards the State and demand that there is a relentless focus on building better infrastructure for us all.

Summer is drawing to a close. Autumn evenings are returning. Real change is possible for disabled people and their families. It’s time to turn on the lights.

Derval McDonagh is CEO of Inclusion Ireland.