Mary Moran (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I will be brief because I am aware of the time. I commend the Independent Senators for bringing this motion before the House and highlighting the real concerns and problems within the appeals system and the social welfare system. Despite being on the Government side - unfortunately I will have to vote with the Government - I commend them for raising these issues and agree with a great deal of what has been said.

I wish to raise the issue of the domiciliary care allowance and the associated appeals process. Like Senator Mulcahy, I am a parent of a special needs child and have been utterly horrified at the number of cases that have come before me this year. Parents have come to me with their children and I have gone out to see others. These people are perfectly deserving of a domiciliary care allowance and I cannot understand it when the forms come back and although the parents have submitted all the medical evidence, they are refused the allowance and they must go through the whole appeals process. Fortunately today I was able to ring a constituent and inform her that her appeal had been upheld. I gave her the good news that she now qualifies for the domiciliary care allowance. She was waiting for it for more than one year but she should have got it one year ago. When I rang this lady she was driving back from the south side of Dublin to County Louth having taken her child for autistic care. She broke down on the M50 and said that she was unable to speak because she was so grateful to have it. I said it was hard enough to have a child with a disability and to go through that but to be made go through the hoops for something that she should have got an age ago was all the worse. It is the same with medical cards. Many people who have children with an intellectual disability are perfectly deserving of a medical card but it has been refused in many cases. This is another area that we need to examine.