Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I too wish the Minister of State well in his new challenge and hope he makes a positive impact.

While Deputy Finian McGrath's motion may be a statement of the obvious, the points therein need to be continually made in an effort to obtain fairness for some of the people who most need it. I will raise a number of issues, the first of which is the matter of respite care. Budget 2013 imposed a 19% cut to the respite care grant, which was significantly higher than other cuts made to the Department of Social Protection budget. In addition, respite care facilities have been closed without any replacements being put in place, which is putting families under serious pressure and stress. I support the call made by the Carers Association for the restoration of the respite care grant to €1,700 in budget 2015.

The Carers Association has also drawn attention to the challenges faced by those caring for adults with intellectual or mental health illness when applying for carer's allowance, carer's benefit or the respite care grant. According to the Carers Association, these people find that the forms and application process "weigh significantly in favour of those with a physical disability, while carers for those with an intellectual disability or mental health issue are forced to supply additional medical evidence". This is burdensome for carers and puts pressure on other people to write exhaustive reports, thus impacting on service delivery.

Those who have managed to get through the application process and are trying to appeal Department decisions about their eligibility for the carer's allowance, domiciliary care allowance or disability allowance are faced with significant delays in the processing of appeals. Many applications for these payments are being considered by internal medical assessors who do not meet the families involved. In this regard, I ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Joan Burton, to outline her plans to address the recent High Court finding in the case of B v. Minister for Social Protection. The court found that deciding officers in the Department abdicated their decision-making duties unlawfully by "slavishly following" the opinions of their internal medical assessors. All the deciding officers who were so heavily criticised remain in their posts and there has been no confirmation from the Minister that this policy has been set aside.

We know that at the end of March, more than 3,000 children and young people were waiting to be referred to mental health practitioners. This represents an 11% increase on the same period last year. It is disappointing that the new Child and Family Agency does not have the child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, under its remit. This is a missed opportunity to have proper mental health services available to children in care.

Today, the Child and Family Agency published four reports into the deaths of young people in care, one of which identified critical gaps in mental health services. The relevant report stated:

This case highlighted a critical gap in psychiatric service provision for 16/17 year olds at this time, and the consequences of reliance on adult service for complex adolescents. It is now understood that many CAMHS services will work with young people up to the age of 18 years. However, services for this age range are still far from comprehensive, particularly when hospitalisation may be necessary.

What is the Government doing to address this issue? According to a recent report by the Inspectorate of Mental Health Services, a total of 83 children were admitted to adult psychiatric units in 2013. The report notes that although this number has decreased since 2009, "A Vision for Change (2006) recommended that mental health inpatient services for children up to the age of 18 years be provided by dedicated child and adolescent inpatient units". According to the Mental Health Commission's code of practice relating to admission of children, no admission of a child under the age of 18 years to adult units was to take place after December 2011. Given that this deadline elapsed two and a half years ago, why is this practice continuing?

I take the opportunity presented by this week's UN Human Rights Committee hearings to remind the Government that Ireland has still not ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The Inclusion Ireland organisation was in Geneva to attend the UN hearings. They expressed serious concern that the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Bill 2013 will not be compliant with article 12 of the convention. These concerns were echoed by the UN committee.

Given that the State likes to think of itself as a bastion of human rights, ratifying the convention would be a concrete step in demonstrating this commitment.

See this speech in context