Joe Flaherty (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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579. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the steps that have been taken to revise the age thresholds for the domiciliary care allowance (details supplied). [12782/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Make Work Pay report was published in April 2017 following a commitment in the Comprehensive Employment Strategy for people with disabilities 2015 -2024, and was undertaken in order to better identify how people with disabilities could be supported to achieve their employment ambitions.

The report made two recommendations (numbers 9 and 10) that addressed significant issues around the design of the main income supports schemes and the provision of employment services. These related to a proposed reconfiguration of Disability Allowance, from the current starting age of 16 to 18 years, and the introduction of an early engagement approach for young people with disabilities - to provide the necessary employment supports at the earliest opportunity, to assist young jobseekers to enter or return to employment.

To fulfil a commitment made at the time of the report, a wide-ranging national consultation exercise was conducted with persons with disabilities, their families and representative groups in relation to these recommendations.

Outcomes from stakeholder submissions, four regional consultation events (held in Dublin, Cork, Sligo and Limerick), and responses to two online questionnaires were compiled.There were some 3,300 responses to the survey on the recommendation relating to DA and a further 2,150 responses relating to the early engagement proposal.

These outcomes were then further considered by a key stakeholder focus group: this group comprises of persons with experience of disability issues, who also helped the Department with the design of the national consultation process.

A report on the outcome of the consultation exercise is currently being finalised and will then be published simultaneously in the following formats:

- a Plain English format, with appendices detailing the full consultation processes undertaken.

- a stand-alone plain English version of the executive summary

- a stand-alone easy to read version of the executive summary.

- ISL videos

While this process is ongoing there has been no change in the conditionality or the age threshold applying to the domiciliary care allowance (DCA) scheme. The DCA scheme remains payable to age 16, where the child fulfils the eligibility conditions.

I trust that this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.