Frances Fitzgerald (Fine Gael)

Two issues are dealt with in this series of amendments Nos. 6 to 14. I ask the Minister of State to consider the possibility of including social workers in the multidisciplinary team. The legislation is not making their inclusion mandatory but is proposing that professionals are to be used as appropriate. There would be occasions where it would be appropriate that a social worker would be the professional involved. It would seem to me to be very reasonable to include this provision. Given the role of social workers in doing this type of assessment and their familiarity with such assessments and care plans and meeting families where care is needed, to exclude the social work profession from this group of professions is inappropriate and I ask the Minister of State to return on Report Stage and respond to that point.

There are two issues in the care needs assessment where I would see the social work assessment as being critical. The legislation states that the family and community supports available to the person should be assessed and the personal social services that are available to the person should be assessed. It would seem unreasonable to exclude the profession of social work and I ask the Minister of State to consider this proposal.

The independence of the care needs assessment is addressed in amendment No. 8. There is an inherent problem with the HSE being the provider of the service and the body that establishes whether the person is entitled to receive the service. There could be a real conflict of interest and there could be an under-reporting of need, simply because the resources are not in place. The same body would be doing the assessment and recommendations and supplying the service. I refer to a number of groups with an interest in this area. I compliment Age Action Ireland and the Nursing Homes Association of Ireland for the interest they have taken in this Bill and I am sure the Minister of State is also looking at their submissions.

Assessments of need for those with autism carried out in the UK found that very low prevalence rates were found that were completely inconsistent with the national average. The belief was that this under-reporting happened because the services were not in place so there was a tendency not to identify the need. For example, if the HSE is coping with shortages of services which will be the case while at the same time it is being asked to do the assessments, if one is operating within the same service, the tendency might be to minimise the needs of the person. To avoid any under-reporting, we propose that the assessment of needs should be conducted by a multidisciplinary team of health care professionals who are independent from the HSE and the Department of Health and Children. I look forward to the Minister of State's response.