Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)

I am delighted to speak on the motion this evening and compliment my colleagues in the Technical Group on tabling it and doing so much research. It is easy to do the research because we all hear stories in our offices from families, parents, single parents and guardians of children with special needs having had their allowances savagely cut.

My late brother was a paediatrician in south Tipperary and specialised in many of these areas. His main findings were that these people, parents and children, just needed someone to listen to them and support them. That is the problem they have now. The sweeping changes and long delays with reviews lead them to have to battle the system. It is bad enough for the parents who have discovered the child they love has special needs without having to fight the State at every turn. The Minister is a compassionate woman and understands this area so I beg her to please look at the sensitivities in this motion and take this area away from the cuts because this is one section of society that needs support and nurturing. We are lucky to have parents caring for their children in the home. What would it cost to keep them in State care?

There is a trick of the light in the Department of Social Protection. It is maintaining headline rates while introducing sweeping cuts. The forms for this allowance are cold and insensitive, and must be filled out with different reports from different medical practitioners, sometimes at enormous cost. We all welcomed the change from the HSE to the Department of Social Protection but we must learn from our mistakes. A mistake has been made here because at least in the HSE medically competent people were available, although they are available to the Department. The timeframe must be reduced to seven weeks because it is too unwieldy and cumbersome and places too much pressure on families. Everything is a constant battle. They have enough of a battle within their own four walls to maintain some level of dignity for their child and themselves so why must they fight the State?

It was a mistake to remove the scheme. We learn by our mistakes and the man or woman who never made a mistake never made anything. The Minister should hand the scheme back to the HSE, much as we might criticise that organisation. This system of rigorous tests and appeals and oral hearings did not obtain at the time anyway, when it was removed. Parents are at their wits' end. They want to care for their child and do not want to fight the State, day in, day out.

As others have observed, this savage cut is a gateway to other cuts. We have heard of Charlie McCreevy and his dirty dozen, fadó fadó. This cut supersedes all other cuts. The removal of this grant aid will become a gateway to all the cuts that were mentioned, such as carer's allowance, half-carer's allowance, and many others. This gate must be closed and sealed. We must do this compassionately and in the interests of the children.

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