Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies for raising these issues. I might go in reverse order and start with Deputy Conway-Walsh. I am happy to take that up. I have not seen the letter. If the Deputy wants to provide it, I will be happy to take a look at it. My general experience with the domiciliary care allowance is, as the Deputy said, that the structure of the scheme is worded in such a way as not to be prescriptive to a specific disability but rather to the issue of substantial needs above and beyond other children of that age. I am paraphrasing. There is a process to go through, appeals and the likes. It sounds like that has been exhausted, from what the Deputy tells me. I am happy to take a look at it. I know the domiciliary care allowance scheme is very important to many people. I will take a look at the letter if the Deputy provides me with a copy.

To Deputy Carthy, I will ask the Minister to respond directly on the issue being faced by student and parents at three post-primary schools/ The Deputy referred to one primary school in south Monaghan and the result of what sounds like a very sudden change regarding school transport. I am of the view that the age of people driving the buses should be reviewed. My understanding is that the Government took a decision to the effect that this would happen. I will certainly follow up and see where that stands. This arbitrary age limit is offensive to many people of that age who are providing a very important service. The absence of that service is obviously being felt by the Deputy's constituents. In addition, people do not suddenly just turn 70. It is important, therefore, that the bus service is planning for any such retirement situation. I do not know enough about the specific situation but I will certainly take a look at it and ask the Minister, Deputy Foley, to engage with the Deputy on it.

Deputy Paul Murphy raised the huge cost of supervised visits. This is something I will familiarise myself with. As the Deputy acknowledged, supervised visits are very important, but so, too, is a parent's aspiration to be ultimately reunited with their child. That link between a parent and a child is obviously paramount. The idea that it would be costing somebody a third of their income to see their child in circumstances allowed for by a court is concerning. I will take a look at that because it does sound like a very significant burden. I will come back to the Deputy directly.

In response to Deputy Boyd Barrett, I will be following closely the debate on special needs education tomorrow. It is important that we are having that debate. I can quote figures, facts and the likes to show improvements that have been made over the years. There have been improvements in terms of the number of children with special educational needs in mainstream, the number of people now working in special education, the number of SNAs. However, as someone who live in the real world, I am also very aware of the challenges still being faced by a number of families - challenges around school places, transition and pathways. I will follow a transcript of that debate tomorrow. I will say, however - I will be happy to get the Deputy some figures on this because I do not have them to hand - that recruitment for therapy posts is a matter in respect of which progress is being made. For all the debate around it, we did actually have provision within the health budget to hire a significant number of people into disability services, including our children's disability teams. A note that I do not have with me but that I read previously does indicate to me some good progress being made around recruitment. I fully accept that we need to recruit many more people in the therapy posts. I have also asked the Minister for further and higher education to come up with a plan in terms of how we can expand the number of training places across third level institutions in respect of therapy provision.

In response to Deputy Barry, when I became Taoiseach, in consultation with the Minister, I thought the right thing to do was to scrap the Green Paper. I heard the depth of feeling from people in respect of it. I believe in "nothing about us without us." I do believe in that level of engagement. Of course, the Cabinet committee on disability is by its very nature made up of members of the Cabinet but certainly as Taoiseach I do intent to meet directly with disability groups. I have had correspondence from a number of them and informal conversations with a small number of them. I will be issuing invitations to engage more substantively with them. I know the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, does a great deal of that engagement as well.

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