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.

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........

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