Cost of Disability Strategic Focus Network Summit 2026

A Zoom screen showing a panel at the Cost of Disability Summit, with a sign language interpreter beside the main video and Zoom controls along the bottom. The panel is of six speakers from the DPO Network. Left to Right: Brian Hayes (National Platform of Self Advocates), Elaine Greehan (Irish Deaf Society), Adrian Carroll (AsIAm), Michael Seifu (Independent Living Movement Ireland) and Amy Hassett (Disabled Women Ireland). Image Credit: Independent Living Movement Ireland.

Disabled Women Ireland (DWI) participated in the Cost of Disability Strategic Focus Network Summit, held on 13 May 2026 at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin, as part of the implementation of the National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People 2025–2030.

The summit brought together Disabled Persons’ Organisations (DPOs), government departments, and other stakeholders to discuss the systemic and financial barriers faced by disabled people, and to help shape the future development of a cost of disability payment and wider cross-government responses. It was a follow on from the recent public consultation on the Cost of Disability held earlier in 2026.

Amy represented Disabled Women Ireland on a panel organised by the DPO Network, which focused on the lived experiences of disabled people. The discussion highlighted the importance of ensuring that policy development is grounded in lived experience and that engagement with disabled people is carried out meaningfully through Disabled Persons’ Organisations over a sustained period of time. They highlighted that addressing the costs of disability meaningfully cannot be accomplished through once of consultations and single day events.

A panel of six speakers from the DPO Network. Left to Right: Brian Hayes (National Platform of Self Advocates), Elaine Greehan (Irish Deaf Society), Adrian Carroll (AsIAm), Michael Seifu (Independent Living Movement Ireland) and Amy Hassett (Disabled Women Ireland). An interpreter stands to the right. A projected image of appears behind them. Image Credit: Independent Living Movement Ireland.

Amy particularly emphasised the need to ensure that engagement processes also reach disabled people who were unable to attend the event in person, including those facing barriers related to access, health, caring responsibilities, or income. She also highlighted the importance of sustained and ongoing engagement, rather than one-off consultation, in order to fully reflect the realities of disabled people’s lives over time.

A key focus of DWI’s contribution was the importance of gender-proofing all disability-related policy and supports. Amy highlighted that disabled women, girls, and non-binary people experience distinct impacts of the cost of disability, and that these require targeted, intersectional responses in both policy design and implementation. These were insights developed through direct consultation with disabled women, girls and non-binary people at our recent Cost of Disability Event, held in partnership with the Disability Participation News Hub.

The summit also included sessions exploring the pillars of the National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People, and the immediate actions required to progress implementation across government. These discussions reinforced the need for coordinated, whole-of-government action to address the cost of disability in a way that is rights-based and informed by lived experience.

DWI welcomes the continued focus on the cost of disability at national level and will continue to advocate for meaningful inclusion, sustained engagement with disabled people, and gender-responsive policy development.