Tom Fleming (Kerry South, Independent)

Parents play a crucial, selfless and devoted role in raising children afflicted with disabilities. It is very obvious that since the Department of Social Protection took over the administration of the domiciliary care allowance from the HSE three years ago the number of children whose applications are rejected has soared dramatically. It is ironic that statistics show that of the 2,420 appeals against rejection 52% succeeded, which is a ridiculous reflection on the system. The statistics also place a huge question mark over the credibility and validity of the adjudication of these applications. The success of approximately half of the appeals demonstrates the extremely harsh attitude to a category of people in society who are severely disadvantaged, and the intolerance and insensitivity to their rights and needs is of great concern.

I seriously request the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, who is in the Chamber and the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Joan Burton, to urgently review the system of processing applications and examine how appropriate the medical guidelines are. The parents of these vulnerable children make huge sacrifices and give constant care and support to their affected children. They do their utmost 24 hours a day to ensure their children's well-being, quality of life, safety and security and they assist them with their educational needs to give them an equal opportunity in life. In almost all cases these parents endeavour to make up for the deficiencies in support and professional services which are or should be the responsibility of the State.

The Government needs to focus on the health and social care provision for children and families, and welfare entitlements are paramount for their daily needs. Intellectual and physical disability services are completely inadequate with a lack of speech and language therapists, occupational therapy, physiotherapists and psychology. Most of the parents of domiciliary care allowance recipients use the €309 a month to access and pay for these services privately. This should be a matter of priority to be provided by the HSE. Many of these disciplines have waiting times of up to six or 12 months which is completely unacceptable.

There are clear indications of indiscriminate targeting of these vulnerable children. As a double blow, when the domiciliary care allowance is stopped the carer's allowance and the respite care grant are also automatically stopped. The parents and guardians must still cope with their responsibilities and must give full attention and care to their children around the clock. It is crazy that in many cases this happens without rhyme or reason and they are left high and dry, cut off from all their financial supports and therefore not in a position to buy the intervention or supports to which I referred earlier. Imposing further hardship on these people is totally unacceptable and at least while they are awaiting adjudication on appeals an emergency fund should be provided to enable the family to maintain the services they may be receiving in the public service for their afflicted children. The other matter is the extremely long waiting time, which can be up to 12 months. This must also be addressed as a matter of urgency. Nobody should be put through the current regime of huge waiting times.

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