Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I too am pleased the Bill has been introduced. My colleagues and I made this a very high priority, as did Fianna Fáil in the discussions for Government. It could not come too soon. It is well overdue. I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Bill. During the previous Dáil, the Technical Group, of which the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, and I were members, tabled a motion to improve auxiliary care services in 2012. The motion called on the Government, among other things, to reform the domiciliary allowance system immediately by returning the administration of the system to the Department of Health where it belonged and insisting medical assessors were competent to assess the medical information submitted and were on the relevant specialist register, for example, paediatrics or child psychology. It is very important. There is nothing worse than parents of sick children who live with them 24/7 and who want the best for them to have them assessed by people who do not understand the difficulties, issues and intricacies of their conditions. Deputy Michael Harty would understand it far better than I.

We asked that all decisions on domiciliary care allowance applications and existing claims be made by child protection or disability social workers. We also asked that domiciliary care allowance applicants and recipients be given access to all documentation held regarding their claims upon request and within a reasonable timeframe. There have been serious blockages, delays and stifling and frustrating of applicants. It is part of what the HSE is good at.

The Bill will provide children with disabilities who are in receipt of domiciliary care allowance with automatic entitlement to a medical card. It is a major step and was badly needed and I compliment the Government on it. However, like other speakers said, we will be policing it day by day. We cannot have any more delays. It has to happen. It is already years too late. Under the former Minister for Health, now Senator James Reilly - "Calamity James" as I used to call him - HSE officials were writing to parents of sick children, even children with Down's syndrome, to ask whether they still had the condition. The Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, knows all about it. How hurtful and unfortunate it was. Are the people who sent these letters heartless, illiterate or what to send such heartless, uncaring letters?

The Bill follows on from a commitment made in the budget in October 2016. The Bill will benefit more than 9,000 children who are not eligible for a medical card. My late brother was a paediatrician of renown in Tipperary. Like Deputy Michael Harty, he was astounded to see people come into the surgery who did not have medical cards and who had to fight tooth and nail for them. All the Deputies have constituents who are seriously ill with cancer and all kinds of illnesses who are begging, striving, scrounging, scraping, filling in forms and putting in this and that claim to get a medical card. Once they have a serious illness, they should be entitled. The frustration and stress is enough to make them sick, never mind affect them when they are under serious threat and trying to recover.

The parent or guardian of a child in receipt of domiciliary care allowance but who does not have a medical card will register for the scheme online or through a paper form. Many people in rural Ireland cannot go online. They have no line to go on, because we have no broadband. For a child who is currently eligible for a medical card, discretionary or otherwise, and is in receipt of the domiciliary care allowance, the HSE will automatically issue him or her with a medical card. I will believe it when I see it. All those measures are very welcome, even if they are coming five years after the motion by the former Technical Group was proposed. It is better late than never: do not look a gift horse in the mouth. It has to happen and I am holding the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, responsible. He recently came to Tipperary with a colleague of mine offering this, that and the other to very sick children. I will hold him accountable for that too. We need it to be delivered. We need the Minister of State in the Cabinet with his Independent colleagues. Along with the Minister, Deputy Shane Ross, and the Minister of State, Deputy John Halligan, he was part of the Technical Group in 2012. Put your money where your mouth is. We expect delivery. We cannot have these sick children or their parents waiting any longer. The parents become ill themselves due to the trauma and stress.

I supported the prescription charge of 50 cent for reasons to which Deputy Michael Harty and others alluded. However, the HSE saw that it was working well and decided to multiply it. All the HSE seems to do is bleed people for money.

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