01 December 2010

Dáil Debates

• Order of Business: Capacity legislation

Parliamentary Questions

• Reduction in Rent Supplement
• Extension of Home Tuition Grant

DÁIL DEBATES

• Order of Business: Capacity legislation

Deputy Kathleen Lynch (L): I am loth to raise this issue but I note the Bill for the direct election of a mayor for Dublin was back on the Order Paper yet the mental capacity Bill, which is a much more important piece of legislation vital for many more people and will have a greater impact on people’s lives than any directly elected mayor of any city not just Dublin, is not. When will the mental capacity Bill be brought to the House?

Deputy Michael D. Higgins (L): On the same matter, in answer to the point made by Deputy Kathleen Lynch, which is a very important matter, the absence of the mental capacity Bill’s passage is the reason the Government is giving for the failure to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. It is quite scandalous that the ratification——

An Ceann Comhairle: The Deputy is embellishing the inquiry from his colleague.

Deputy Michael D. Higgins: I am not. In so far as the Ceann Comhairle has stated this, with regard to his interpretation and the advice he is receiving on Standing Order 26, that Standing Order is not based on the legislation as announced within this Chamber; it is legislation anticipated from public statements requiring legislation inside or outside the House——

An Ceann Comhairle: It is promised legislation.

Deputy Michael D. Higgins: I think it is important to say this so that the wrong precedent is not established…Frankly, I have asked several times about the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which has been signed but not ratified. It has been communicated to me in writing that the reason it is not ratified is because we are awaiting the passage of the mental capacity Bill. Deputy Kathleen Lynch has asked about the Bill and she is entirely right. She is also entirely right to draw a contrast between a Bill that is urgently needed so that we might establish some humane standards and a fit of nonsense that has been going on from someone else.

An Ceann Comhairle: We are making inquiries about the progress on the legislation.

The Taoiseach (Brian Cowen TD): That Bill is due to be published this session. For the purposes of reply and to put it in my own words, having listened to the Deputy’s point, the ratification of conventions can only occur when the necessary legislation is in place to implement the convention. Other countries ratify conventions and have no domestic framework for them. It is preferable that we bring forward the legislation which is being published this session. All the stakeholders have been involved in its preparation. The Minister of State, Deputy Moloney, who has responsibility for this area, is satisfied that it can be published this session. Once the Bill is implemented, we can consider ratifying the convention.

PARLIAMENTARY QUESTIONS

• Reduction in Rent Supplement

Deputy Richard Bruton (FG): asked the Minister for Social Protection if the award of domiciliary care allowance to a person on rent supplement results in an equal reduction in the payment of rent supplement; if he would consider that domiciliary care allowance is precisely paid by the State in order to compensate for the extra cost of maintaining a child with a disability and should not therefore be treated as means;

Minister for Social Protection (Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív): Rent supplement is calculated to ensure that a person, after the payment of rent, has an income equal to the rate of supplementary welfare allowance (SWA) appropriate to their family circumstances less a minimum rent contribution (currently €24) which recipients are required to pay from their own resources. Income from domiciliary care allowance (DCA) is not included in the rent supplement assessment. DCA is a payment made in recognition of the substantial extra care and attention provided by the carer to a child with a disability over and above what would be required for a child of a similar age who does not suffer from the disability. 

• Extension of Home Tuition Grant

Deputy Christy O’Sullivan (FF): asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills if she will make provision whereby the home tuition grant can be extended for a further 12 months to children over five years of age who have been diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorder and if she will outline the policy of accessing the suitability of a school capable of meeting the requirements of such children as opposed to the availability of school places.

Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills (Deputy Mary Coughlan): The Deputy will be aware that my Department provides grant aid under the Home Tuition Scheme to provide early education intervention for pre-school children with a confirmed diagnosis of autism or to parents of children with autism who are awaiting an educational placement. Therefore children with a diagnosis of autism aged 2.5 years are entitled to ten hours home tuition per week under the scheme. This allocation increases to twenty hours per week on the child’s 3rd birthday provided no school/early education placement is available for them. Furthermore children with autism may be eligible for tuition as an interim measure only whilst awaiting a school placement. As the Deputy is aware, the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) is responsible, through its network of local Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs), for processing applications from primary, special and post primary schools for special needs supports on the basis of applications in respect of individual pupils. The SENOs operate within the policy outlined in my Department’s circulars for allocating such support. SENOs with their local knowledge and expertise are a valuable resource to parents in sourcing an educational placement. Where a school placement is available resources are allocated to schools to enable appropriate educational provision to be made. In addition to teaching and special needs assistant support training supports are available to schools through the Special Education Support Service. The National Educational Psychological Support Service is also available to provide advice to schools.

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