Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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Question 83: To ask the Minister for Social Protection the position regarding domiciliary care allowance in respect of autistic children. [8907/11]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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In order to qualify for domiciliary care allowance (DCA) a child must be under 16 years, live at home with the person providing the care, be ordinarily resident in the state and must have a severe disability requiring continual or continuous care and attention substantially in excess of the care and attention normally required by a child of the same age. This extra care must be likely to be required for at least 12 months.

The eligibility criteria for DCA are broadly the same as when the scheme was administered by the Health Service Executive. The main change to the scheme since it transferred to the Department is that it is now a statutory scheme while prior to the transfer the eligibility criteria was set out by way of a yearly circular from the Department of Health and Children.

The refusal rate when the scheme was administered by the HSE is reported to have been approximately 20%, but as it was administered separately by each HSE area, consistency could not be guaranteed and the refusal rate varied considerably from area to area.

The percentage of applications for children suffering from autism related conditions that are allowed is significantly higher than the average. The most recent statistics available indicate that of over 500 claim processed for children with autism related conditions, 62% were allowed compared with under 40% of claims overall.