Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will explain it to him. My amendment states: "The Minister shall as soon as may be after the passing of this Act prepare and lay before both Houses of the Oireachtas a report on the implications of allowing discretion under the carer’s support grant, on a case by case basis, to the 15 hour restriction on engaging in employment, self-employment, training or education courses outside the home." I tabled this amendment because I have a constituent outside Ballinasloe who works 15 hours a week as a home help outside the home. She is the full-time carer of her disabled daughter who had been going to school but has now moved on to training. She goes to training outside the home for 30 hours a week. She is picked up at her front door at 10 o'clock in the morning and dropped home at 4 o'clock in the evening. Outside of those hours her mother is her full-time carer.

The mother is a full-time carer in the home who is also working as a carer on a part-time basis outside the home providing support. The difficulty is that because she works for 15 hours she cannot avail of any training courses, therefore, she cannot avail of something as simple as a manual handling course, which is vitally important for anyone providing full-time care, unless she decides that one or all of the elderly people she is providing care to must lose out on that care while she attends the course. As the Minister knows, the Health Service Executive will not provide replacement staff in that situation. If she attends the training course she will exceed the 15 hour threshold and will be in violation of the carer's allowance and the respite care grant because she will not be complying with the conditions. I understand the logic for the 15 hour threshold, and I have no difficulty with the principle in that regard, but in this particular case extending it beyond the 15 hours to avail of training and education will have no negative impact on the care that woman is providing to her daughter who has a serious disability. Furthermore, by availing of that training and education she can provide better care to her daughter and the other people to whom she is providing the service on a part-time basis.

The type of intellectual disability this woman's daughter has makes her far more prone to develop early onset dementia. It is a difficult challenge for any family to deal with dementia. Many people in this House have had first-hand experience of that but a certain cohort of people with an intellectual disability can start to develop symptoms of early onset dementia in their early 40s. Early onset dementia is much harder to diagnose when the person has an intellectual disability. Also, when people get to a stage with dementia there are options for them. There are excellent long-stay facilities available but, sadly, for a person with an intellectual disability there is only one such facility in the country and it is here in Dublin; they do not exist outside of that. It is important, therefore, that the woman to whom I refer would prepare and plan for that possibility happening in the future. That would involve not only availing of the support that would benefit the quality of care she can provide her daughter but she may be able to identify some of the telltale signs and try to compensate for those with a view to delaying that progression. As we all know, there are many interventions that can delay the progression of dementia. Ireland has one of the leading research facilities in the world dealing with dementia among people with an intellectual disability, and there will be learning and progression in terms of how we can delay the onset of dementia among people with an intellectual disability.

If this woman does not have access to that training or those educational courses, she will not be able to apply that to her daughter. She will not be able to apply it to the people she is caring for on a part-time basis.

The Carers Association website outlines a range of very good courses specifically focused at people who provide care in areas such as: occupational first aid; care support; care skills; safety and health at work; communications; care of the older person; a palliative care approach; nursing theory and practice; exercise and fitness; activities of living patient care; and anatomy and physiology. All of these courses lead to level 5 qualifications. There are other courses in areas such as manual handling which are not level 5.

There are two issues here. The first relates to the quality of care the carer can provide to the particular family member and to the people to whom she provides the service. The other side of it is that in the vast majority of cases, carers at some stage are no longer carers. They must come to terms with that in the first instance and then decide what they will do. Do we shut them out of the possibility of accessing education until they are no longer carers or do we try to facilitate them?

I accept that in the vast majority of cases that are on the Department's books, there is a legitimate reason for not extending the threshold beyond 15 hours and I have no difficulty with that. However, a certain cohort of people avail of services outside the home or other supports. They are not providing care for in excess of 15 hours because of other structured supports that are in place. In those instances where people can present a legitimate case to the effect that it would be of benefit to them, their families or the individuals to whom they are providing care to go beyond that 15-hour threshold, the matter should be considered on a case-by-case basis. That provision already exists within the social welfare code for people with disabilities who want to go out to work. They are dealt with on a case-by-case basis by the Department of Social Protection medical assessors if there is an occupational benefit in that regard. So the precedent already exists. I am asking for the same level of flexibility to be introduced in the case of this grant and the carer's allowance where a person can make a legitimate case to be heard. At present, it is completely ruled out because the law prohibits people from engaging in employment, self-employment, training or education courses outside the home in excess of 15 hours. I ask the Minister of State to give serious consideration to this issue.

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