Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Each and every one of us knows that health is paramount to families, especially to parents who have children. Unfortunately, however, some parents have a heavy cost to bear and unfair burdens when their children become ill and may be ill for many months or many years. Maybe some of them will never get back to full health. When they look for domiciliary care allowance, to which they are entitled, I feel they have to wait much too long. I have had a case in recent times that has been going on for months now - since April - and we are told that maybe we will have an answer by the end of August. To give Deputies a small bit of an insight into the background of the case, it concerns a child who is about seven years old, one of a family of five, whose bowel and colon were removed. She has a bag and may have it until she becomes an adult, although hopefully it will be removed then and replaced with a more acceptable system for keeping her alive. In the meantime, however, the family applied for domiciliary care allowance last April and will be waiting at least until the end of August. I feel, as I suppose do all Members here and county councils around the country, that a six-month wait is not good enough.

It must be about staff. I do not think any staff in any Department would hoard an application like this, but there are not enough staff to vet these cases. It is the same with the carer's allowance. I know Deputy Mattie McGrath and others have made the case about the medical card but I am glad of this opportunity to highlight the need to speed up domiciliary care allowances for children. A sick child is a serious burden to carry for parents and in the case I have mentioned it may be for the rest of her life. I ask the Government to do something and to staff these places to ensure that a speedier outcome is available to those parents who apply for domiciliary care allowance.

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