James Geoghegan (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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Like many Members of this House, I speak not only as a public representative but as a former councillor and as a parent of three young children. I regularly meet parents of children with disabilities. What they tell me is clear; the system is not working for them. The programme for Government commits to progressively increasing the domiciliary care allowance, DCA, and to phasing out the means test for carer's allowance. As the Taoiseach knows, the DCA is a non-means-tested payment of €360 per month for children under 16 with significant additional care needs. It comes with a medical card and a €2,000 annual carer's support grant. However, here is the reality. Figures I obtained through parliamentary questions show that between 2020 and 2024, more than 52,000 families applied for the allowance. One in three was refused. Yet, of those who appealed, 60% were successful. In the most extreme cases, 67 families took the State to the High Court and in every resolved case, they won that case. This is not a fair process. It is a system that forces families already under pressure, to fight for what they are entitled to.

The recent ESRI study, published ahead of the economic dialogue, found that disability-related costs absorb from 52% to 59% of disposable income. This rises to more than 93% in cases of what the ESRI terms, "severe disability." Research by AsIAm shows that parents of autistic children face costs of between €10,000 to €28,000 per year.

I acknowledge that there has been progress. The Minister, Deputy Helen McEntee, has committed to expanding the educational therapy support service, which is being piloted in 75 schools, into both special and mainstream schools nationwide. This kind of wraparound support is crucial, but it is being undermined by the battles parents still face, not just in service delivery from our child disability network teams, CDNT, but in simply accessing a payment that has existed for decades, a payment where the legal test has not changed, despite a significant rise in the number of children with additional needs.

We do not even collect data on families who give up. These are parents who cannot face the appeals process because they do not have the time, resources or energy to instruct a solicitor or go to court. I suspect that many of them would have been successful too, but we will never know.

Does the Taoiseach agree with me that we need a full review and reform of the DCA? I do not believe that one in three families is applying for something that they simply do not need. I believe that too many are losing out because the system is asking them to fight, rather than supporting them. Does the Taoiseach agree with me that these families deserve better?

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. Prior to and during, the general election, I included a number of issues regarding disability in our party's manifesto. I was very clear in putting in to the programme for Government the need to increase the DCA. The previous Government increased it by €20 per month. It is a very important allowance and it helps the families of those with disabilities with the cost of disability. The medical card, in particular, can be of great assistance. In the programme for Government, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Independents all agreed on the priority that should be attached to disability. I have also made it a red line issue that there should be a national school therapy service, beginning in special schools. It used to exist prior to the CDNT policy change in 2013. At that time, all special schools had their own therapists but the system changed. Very good progress has been made by the Minister, Deputy McEntee, and the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Moynihan, in respect of that area. We will have that in place in the next school year, or at least the first phase of it. That is important. So far, the work that was done by the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, to recruit therapists has worked well. The NCSE will provide an advisory service to education. It was interesting that the recruitment was quite positive because there had been doubts about it.

On the DCA, the numbers have grown, which is positive, as I see it. Some 10,500 applied in 2022 and this figure rose to 13,270 in 2024. This is an 8% year-on-year increase and, therefore, there will be an increase in the number of appeals. There is a point to be made whether early on in that process work could be done to identify cases that might not necessarily have to go to appeal. In other words, can there be a better early screening of applications to reduce the necessity for appeals? That can be looked at.

Twenty additional staff were assigned and attended training during 2024 up to January 2025. New appeals' regulations came into effect from April of this year. They provide, among other things, for simpler processes and specified response times. We hope that this will help to reduce the processing times. A new IT system has been introduced in the social welfare appeals office. It provides online capabilities to provide a more efficient and streamlined service for people availing of services. At the end of 2024, a new update provided functionality on mywelfare.ie for making appeals. That is improving the customer experience by offering an additional online channel which facilitates 24-7 access to view the current status of appeals.

The chief appeals officer wants consistency but accepts that there needs to be greater turnaround, and in fact there has been an improvement. At the moment, there are about 560 appeals on hand. A month ago, in mid-May there were 1,300 appeals on hand. That is a very substantial reduction. Some 460 of the current 560 relate to appeals for April, May or June of 2025, so that is a very short time.

James Geoghegan (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Taoiseach for his reply. Fundamentally though, there is a problem here in that I cannot think of any other allowance in the State where many people who apply for it are refused. It has been one in three applications over the past four years. I do not believe that those families are applying because they think that a little bit of extra money would be of assistance. They are applying because they absolutely need the money to support the needs of their child. They may be spending the money on occupational therapy, on private speech and language therapy or on private psychology therapy. They may be spending it on fitting out areas of their house to accommodate someone with physical disabilities. However, they are not getting the payment. Some families have the wherewithal to keep going in battling through an appeals' process, but it is a strange phenomenon that in a payment we have assigned from the State to give to parents of children with disabilities, that they have to go through an appeals process to get the allowance. Worst of all, I regret to say there is a system where parents have to go to a solicitor - I do not know whether solicitors do such work pro bono or get paid for it - to get a solicitor's letter to get this payment. They are battling on all fronts.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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I accept that up to a point, but of course if we compare the most recent census to the previous one, we see that the number of people, including children, identifying with a disability is increasing exponentially. This can be seen from both censuses. The DCA was originally introduced for severe impacts on children, resulting from disabilities. I expect the numbers to continue to increase. There is an appeals system in every payment from the Department of Social Protection. What is important is efficiency and a timely approach.

There is a focus on this within the Department. We can see the numbers coming down. They have come down from 1,300 to 560, and of the 560, some 460 relate to appeals for April, May and June of this year - essentially the last three months. The issue is whether we can make decisions more quickly for the applicants.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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I thank the Taoiseach.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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Perhaps we could also then fine-tune the application process to reduce the necessity for appeals.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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Just before moving on-----

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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Could I just welcome-----

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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That might be what I am about to do.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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-----a special guest, Aaron O'Shea, who is here with us.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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No, but the Taoiseach can work away there.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome Aaron. I meant to do it at the beginning. He is aged 14 and from County Clare. He is here with his parents Fidelma and Martin O'Shea as part of the Make-A-Wish Ireland. He met the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Moynihan, earlier. I wish him a very warm welcome.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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Very good.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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Only secondary to Aaron, with the liberty of the Deputies, I welcome Gaelscoil Chaladh an Treoigh from Limerick, including a grand-daughter of former Deputy, Éamon Ó Cuív, who is also present, who is in sixth class in the school. We welcome them all. We will move on to Questions on Policy or Legislation.