Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Danny Healy-Rae also wants to contribute, but if he does not come in, I will do the best I can. I am glad that this motion was tabled but I am even more pleased that the Government has accepted it. It is a sign of new politics. People may scoff and laugh at the new workings of the new Dáil, but this is practical proof, and it is not the first time in recent weeks that it has happened.

As someone who sat through all the talks on the formation of a government for so many days, I was delighted that the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, my namesake - I know he has just left - was appointed. He was very passionate at those talks about issues to the fore, especially in areas such as this. I congratulate him and Deputy Corcoran Kennedy on their promotions to Ministers of State at the Department of Health, as I know how passionately they both feel about health issues. The Minister of State, Deputy Corcoran Kennedy, will forgive me if I talk about Deputy McGrath, but he was present at the talks and lobbied very hard, and this issue was included in the programme for Government. Action on this issue cannot happen fast enough. Sinn Féin obviously feels this way, as we all do, but Rome was not built in a day, and tosach maith leath na hoibre.

There should not be any question about domiciliary care allowance once one goes through the arduous process to get the allowance for the sickest of children and in the most traumatic of cases. I am involved with a number of organisations, such as the Jack & Jill Children's Foundation, Every Life Counts and One Day More. These are powerful, wonderful organisations that have done Trojan work and supported and given testimony to the reasons these special children must be nurtured, brought into the world and looked after. The State should not make it any more difficult or arduous for the families involved. The cruel terminologies must be removed from the discourse and the granting of the allowance should be automatic. I know a former Minister at some stage agreed something similar in a motion similar to this one. It is very important.

The fact that 11,000 special children, as I like to call them - very special children - will automatically receive this allowance is a good step, one that we should not have to boast about or fight for, but one that we should celebrate in 2016, the 100th anniversary of 1916. Something should be readily available to these children. I believe it will come, and it will work to the advantage of the families.

We must make a separation here, get a different ideological outlook and set the medical card apart from the domiciliary care allowance. Assessments of eligibility for medical cards are based on family income. A sick and special child should not be depending on this. There are extra burdens on such families. They love caring for their children and they step up to the plate, but the assessment should not be done in this way. The assessment should be based on the needs of the sick children who need those special medications and supports to live as best a life as they can with the disability they have, whether life-limiting or not and whether terminal or not. If a person becomes unemployed, he or she gets a medical card, and rightly so, for the whole family, but when a sick child needs a medical card, it should not be assessed based on the needs or the income of the parents, the household income or anything to do with the rest of the family. We must have clarity on that area and work and strive towards such an approach.

There is also the issue of the terminology used and the questions asked about reviews and medical cards. We have heard such issues recounted here. We heard of a case not so long ago in which the parents of a child with Down's syndrome were asked if her condition had improved. There is no room for such language to be used by officials in the medical card section of the HSE. They should understand that it is very hurtful, very silly and downright contemptuous of the people involved. As I said, for people with medical cards, cancer patients, the sickest of people trying to access the system, it is too onerous and arduous. I certainly hope that when these 11,000 people automatically get medical cards, they will not make the domiciliary care allowance any more difficult for the children who need it.

I salute the work of Jack and Jill, especially Jonathan Irwin, its CEO, for what it does for sick children and the continuous work its nurses provide and the hours they give. As I said, I wish the two Ministers of State very well in their promotions and look forward to working with them on many other issues across the floor. I hope that issues will be taken and dealt with. Sensible motions were not tabled heretofore, during the terms of past Governments, but they are being tabled now because of the new situation here, and it is a welcome development.

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