Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)

I thank the Deputies for raising this issue, in which I have a particular interest even though it is now the responsibility of the Department of Social Protection. I, along with my Government colleagues, fully recognise that the domiciliary care allowance, DCA, scheme represents a very important support to parents and guardians who live with and care for children with disability. As the Minister, Deputy Joan Burton, said, the State pays the domiciliary care allowance to parents or guardians to recognise the heroic and selfless role they play in raising children who are experiencing some form of disability.

The DCA is a monthly payment to the parent or guardian of a child with a disability so severe that the child requires care and attention and/or supervision substantially in excess of what another child of the same age might need. The allowance is paid at the rate of €309.50 per month. This rate has been specifically protected by the Government from any reduction over recent budgets. This is against the backdrop of significant reductions in expenditure generally. The Department now pays DCA for 26,000 children, an increase of over 3,000 since the Department took over responsibility for the scheme from the HSE in April 2009. Spending on the scheme and the respite care grant, which is automatically paid to all recipients, has increased from €138 million to €145 million between 2010 and 2011. Expenditure on both payments in 2012 is expected to be approximately €146 million.

Reviews are an integral part of all social welfare schemes and are necessary to ensure that payments continue to be made only to people who meet the qualifying conditions. In this context, DCA cases are routinely reviewed to ensure that all the conditions for receipt of the payment continue to be met. I fully accept that children have particular conditions which mean the child will never progress. We all accept that and when that is the case we need to consider that the type of review expected by the Department should not occur. There are certain conditions that will never disappear and the child will not progress.

I believe that the operation of the scheme on a statutory basis ensures consistency of approach to all claims. The medical criteria, as set out in the Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2008 is almost identical to that in use when the scheme was operated by the HSE, requiring that "the child has a severe disability requiring continual or continuous care and attention substantially in excess of the care and attention normally required by a child of the same age". It is worth recalling that prior to taking over responsibility for the scheme in 2009, the Department of Social Protection convened an expert medical group to draw up a set of consistent and objective guidelines for use in determining the medical eligibility of children for the scheme. The group was chaired by that Department's chief medical adviser and comprised senior medical personnel from the HSE as well as eminent professionals in the areas of physical disabilities which affect children and child psychiatry and psychology. I can confirm that the Department of Health and the HSE had an active involvement in the preparation for the transfer of the scheme to the Department of Social Protection and that both are of the view that the DC A scheme is best placed within that Department.

I understand that very effort is made to process claims as quickly as possible and the Department's target is to process DCA claims within seven weeks. I recognise that the target is often not met. Currently, the average time frame to process a DCA application is eight weeks, and again I recognise that this is not often met. It is impractical and not in the best interest of either the child or the service to place a limit on the time to be allowed to process claims, particularly in the case of appeals. The Minister has agreed to an extension of the time in that regard.

I understand that a number of changes have been made to the operation of the scheme in recent times with a view to providing more time for parents to prepare for reviews of their claims. Parents are now being informed by the Department of the review date that will apply in their case when their claim is initially awarded. They are also being afforded 60 days in which to obtain and return evidence following the notification of review.

Before concluding, I remind the House that two key developments in the scheme were outlined by the Minister last night. Officials in her Department will be liaising with colleagues in the Departments of Health, Children and Youth Affairs and Education and Skills who have a role in providing supports and services to children with disabilities to map the availability of services. This is with a view to seeing if there is any opportunity for greater linkage and consistency in the assessment for such supports and services. I am very keen to see the outcome of that work.

It is fully recognised that the strains on the family of a child with a disability are enormously greater than those on a family that does not have such difficulties. We will have to examine the scheme. Since I have taken office and taken responsibility for disability issues, one of the things I have found most difficult to deal with is the inconsistency in the application of different services and schemes. It is important that there is consistency. Whether one lives in Donegal or Dingle, there must be the same criteria. The only way to provide for that is to locate it in a single Department. The type of linkages that are needed for dealing with disability are entirely different, but with regard to assessment there must be a single assessment tool.

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