Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

A record €10 billion is being invested in education this year. In the health area, children with profound disabilities, 40,000 of whom are in receipt of the domiciliary care allowance, DCA, now have a medical card as of right. They do not have to be means-tested based on their parents' income. When the party opposite was in power children, even though they had profound disabilities, were not provided with free healthcare or medical cards because their parents were working, or had an average, or in some cases below average, income. We have changed that. We have also brought in free GP care for the under sixes. In the area of the Ministry of children, a dedicated Ministry set up in recent years, we have brought in two years of free preschool, giving children early childhood education which is so beneficial for them.

In the last year or so, we brought in subsidised childcare, reducing the cost of childcare for lots of parents around the country. We all know the enormous burden that childcare costs are on families. Those subsidies help to make a difference and we propose to continue them in the years ahead. Also, in terms of leave for parents in order that they can spend more time with their children, we brought in paid paternity benefit for the first time. I appreciate there are areas where there are still enormous difficulties and areas where more work needs to be done.

In regard to the assessments under the Disability Act 2005, to which the Deputy referred, the number of applications has risen steadily since it it was enacted. There were 1,138 applications in 2007. However, in 2017, there were 5,839 applications, such that in the space of ten years, there was an almost five-fold increase in the number of applications. The system is struggling to deal with this level of demand. There is a new standing operating procedure for the assessment of need but it has been delayed due to necessary discussions and consultations with the professional bodies. This process is now entering its final stages and we hope that if we can get it agreed it will make a real difference. Also, efforts to progress the establishment of disability network teams around the country have been delayed as well, due to deliberations with Fórsa and with voluntary providers on the appointment of managers of these teams but an agreement has now been made and this will allow recruitment to start in the next month for some of the community healthcare organisations.

See this speech in context