Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Go raibh maith agat, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle. Comhghairdeas in your new role.

One of key issues in my constituency of Carlow-Kilkenny is that of the domiciliary care allowance, DCA. Parents struggle to apply for and obtain the allowance, while there is the added pressure of not automatically getting a medical card.

I commend the work of parents who fight daily for their children and, in particular, a group called the DCA warriors who do fantastic work. They are an extraordinary group of people who fight tirelessly for parents in need of State support for children with severe illness or disabilities. However, the fact that this group is in existence, and is so heavily relied upon, is shameful.

Adding extra pressure on parents to wade through streams of paper and bureaucracy in order to prove their child or children's challenge or disability is inhumane and wrong. We should be creating a society that puts children and their needs first - a society that protects those children most in need. By supporting this Bill the Government would be sending a message that those children are a priority.

The messy delays that exist at the moment are playing havoc with children's lives. Unnecessary delays are an abuse of those children's rights to equal treatment in health and development. At the very least a medical card should come as an immediate right if one qualifies for the domiciliary care allowance. Immediately extending the medical card to children in receipt of the domiciliary care allowance would ensure that critically ill children who need urgent medical treatment, would get it.

In this centenary year, the words of our Proclamation are being repeatedly echoed across the country. Children have been learning about the meaning of those words in our schools as part of our centenary celebrations. The Proclamation "declares its resolve to pursue the happiness and prosperity of the whole nation and of all its parts, cherishing all the children of the nation equally." This is not the reality for so many children affected by the unjust system currently in place, however.

We need urgently to introduce and implement a schedule for the extension of full medical cards to people with serious illness and disabilities, without a means test and immune from changes to household finances.

I welcome the fact the Minister has said he is supportive of this legislation, but we need to see a timeframe and a date for rolling it out. Actions speak louder than words and if the Government is serious about this issue it is important not to pay lip service to it but to provide a timeframe for its implementation. It is the least that these parents and children deserve. It is difficult enough for families faced with a situation whereby their child or children might have a serious illness or disability, but it is humiliating for them to go into detail when completing the domiciliary care allowance application forms. In addition, they must go through the process again when applying for medical cards.

In this day and age, we should put a stop to that process. We need to see a date from the Minister also. While I appreciate his comment that this legislation is welcome, we do need to learn when such a Bill will be passed. I hope the Ministers of State will comment on that in their concluding remarks.

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