MARCH 4 2008

Dáil Debates

• Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2008 — Report and Final Stages

Parliamentary Questions

• National Disability Strategy
• UN Convention and Capacity Legislation
• Rehabilitation Services
• Medical Cards
• Speech and Language Therapy in Ballyfermot

DÁIL DEBATES

• Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2008 — Report and Final Stages

Deputy Róisín Shortall (L): I move amendment No. 7: In page 6, between lines 7 and 8, to insert the following: 3.—The Minister shall as soon as may be after the passing of this Act prepare and lay before both Houses of the Oireachtas a report on extending the number of hours a week a Carer may be gainfully employed while still retaining entitlement to Carer’s Allowance/Benefit. Both of these amendments relate to carers. We know from the recent census that 161,000 people provide care to elderly people or people with a disability and yet only one in five is in receipt of a carer’s payment. Some 67,000 carers spend more than 15 hours per week caring while 50,000 spend more than 29 hours per week caring and yet only 35,000 get a weekly payment. The combination of the means test and the working hours rule is precluding many carers from receiving any kind of payment. It is a catch-22 situation for many people who provide care to a loved one but who must hold down a job to survive. The point I made on Committee Stage was that rather than have an arbitrary figure of 15 hours per week in terms of the hours worked a much more satisfactory test would be to ask whether the care provided to an elderly or a disabled person enables him or her to stay out of a nursing home or institutional care. Surely that should be the test applied. There are many situations where a person providing an hour’s care in the morning and in the evening and at critical times enables a person to stay at home. One must take into consideration the inadequacy of the home help service in the community and the cutbacks in the number of hours. I accept more funding has been provided and that home helps are on a better rate, which they should be, but very often that means the overall number of hours available is reduced in many communities. It is sometimes very hard for people providing care to keep the show on the road and to enable the person being cared for to remain in his or her home with the proper care, in some kind of comfort and stay out of a nursing and to be able to pay the bills. I would like to see some flexibility. The rules, as they apply at present, are too severe. The fact that only 21% of carers are in receipt of a payment would testify to that fact. That is the reason I tabled these two amendments.

Deputy Olwyn Enright (FG): The issue here is recognising what carers give up to care for somebody, usually a family member, and the potential cost to the State if these people were not willing to give up often gainful employment to do a job which could cost the State far more. There is room for flexibility and we should be a bit more imaginative in terms of the practicalities. If a carer’s workplace is close to the home of the person being cared for, an employer might be willing to give him or her permission to leave in an emergency so as to ensure the needs of the care recipient are met. We should examine such issues in order to give people a real chance. We should not forget the loneliness and isolation for carers, particularly if they are caring for somebody who is quite ill and who may not be able to communicate. Working, therefore, could be very important to them, both mentally and socially. The 15 hour rule is quite restrictive and is less than what is allowed under some other social welfare schemes. In those circumstances, this should be examined.

Deputy Martin Cullen (Minister for Social and Family Affairs): The carer’s allowance is a social assistance payment which provides income support to people who provide certain older people or people with a disability with full-time care and attention and whose incomes fall below a certain limit. The carer’s allowance means test has been eased significantly in the past few years, most notably with the introduction of disregards of spouses’ earnings. In budget 2008, I made provision to increase the income disregard in the carer’s allowance means test to €332.50 for a single person and €665 per week for a couple from April 2008. One of the fundamental qualifying conditions for carer’s allowance, carer’s benefit and the respite care grant is that the person is providing full-time care and attention to a person who needs such care. The number of hours a person may engage in employment, self-employment, training or education outside the home and still be considered to be providing full-time care and attention for the purpose of the schemes was increased from ten to 15 hours per week in June 2006. It is worth noting that the 15 hour rule represents a relaxation of the full-time care and attention requirement. A further increase in the number of hours a person can work and still qualify for payment would dilute the full-time care and attention requirement. In 2005, the carer’s allowance scheme was extended to accommodate care sharing situations and under these arrangements, it is possible for a week on, week off care sharing arrangement to be facilitated. This means that where two carers provide care to the same person on alternative weeks, the carer’s allowance and the annual respite care grant can be split between them. In addition, budget 2007 provided for fundamental reform of payments to carers whereby people in receipt of a social welfare payment other than carer’s allowance or benefit who are providing full-time care and attention can retain their main payment and receive another payment depending on their means, the maximum of which is equivalent to a half rate carer’s allowance. As I said, the Government is committed to continuing to develop payment for carers and this commitment includes recognition of the fact there is a need for payment to carers to be flexible where possible. I will keep the supports for carers available from the Department under review in order to continue to improve the schemes and ensure commitments in regard to income support are delivered.

Deputy Róisín Shortall: I will press the amendment because, unfortunately, the Minister did not respond to the issue I raised, that is, the invaluable work carers do——

Deputy Martin Cullen: I accept that.

Deputy Róisín Shortall: ——in terms of enabling people to stay out of nursing home care.Deputy Martin Cullen: I accept that.

Deputy Róisín Shortall: The Minister did not address the issue I raised whereby enabling the person to survive at home on his or her own can sometimes mean an hour’s care in the morning and in the evening and someone dropping in for a while at lunchtime. The efforts of such carers are worthy of recognition. The Carers Association will attest to the fact that isolation is an extremely important issue for those who provide care. There are many good reasons, apart entirely from their ability to pay their bills, for people to remain in the workforce. These include maintaining social contact or keeping a farm or family business in operation. Certain individuals are making a significant contribution in the context of providing care for others to enable them to remain at home. That is the critical point. For that reason, there is a need for far greater flexibility in the operation of the scheme.

Deputy Martin Cullen: The Deputy is making a fundamental point in respect of the existing support scheme. Effectively, she is saying that people should be paid for caring. That is the impact of what she is saying.

Deputy Róisín Shortall: I am not saying that. I made the point on Committee Stage that it is wrong.

Deputy Martin Cullen: We do not have unlimited resources and we are obliged to try to manage what resources we do possess in the best way possible. The Government has come a hell of a long way in recent years in the context of the supports provided for carers. The scheme has become much more flexible, it accommodates many more people and the income disregards relating to it are excellent. I will try to do more, as each budget approaches, to try to enhance the scheme in order to ensure more people benefit from it. There is, however, a fundamental difference between a scheme that is designed to support people on low incomes who are providing care and — this is ultimately what the Deputy wants to see happen — paying people to provide care. The latter would be a major step and would require careful consideration.

Deputy Róisín Shortall: The Minister used that argument on Committee Stage and I said it was wrong. As he is aware, that is not where I am going with this.  

Amendment put and declared lost.

PARLIAMENTARY QUESTIONS

• National Disability Strategy

Deputy David Stanton asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform further to Parliamentary Question No. 120 of 7 November 2007, if the National Disability Strategy Stakeholder Monitoring Group received a further progress report on the strategy from senior officials at the end of 2007; if this report and the previous two reports will be published; if the Stakeholder Monitoring Group also have a role in monitoring the implementation of the sectoral plans;

Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform (Deputy Brian Lenihan): The National Disability Strategy was launched by Government in September, 2004 and underpins the participation of people with disabilities in Irish society by building on existing policy and legislation. The implementation of the Strategy is the agreed focus of disability policy under the Partnership Agreement, Towards 2016. Under the terms of Towards 2016, the National Disability Strategy Stakeholder Monitoring Group was established in December, 2006 to monitor progress on the overall implementation of the National Disability Strategy. The Group comprises representatives of stakeholder groups, senior officials and the National Disability Authority, while my Department also serves as Secretariat to the Group. The Group received a third report on the National Disability Strategy by senior officials of the relevant Government Departments in January, 2008. The reports provided to date have been presented to Dr. Jimmy Devins, T.D., Minister of State with responsibility for Disability and Mental Health and they have been presented to the Cabinet Committee on Social Inclusion. The three reports to date were not prepared on the basis that they would be published. Under the provisions of the Disability Act, 2005, six Government Departments prepared Sectoral Plans in key sectors including transport, built infrastructure, housing, training and employment, health and social welfare provision. The Sectoral Plans were presented to the Oireachtas and they were published in December, 2006. The Departments have provided targets and costings for the implementation of the Sectoral Plans and have established separate fora with stakeholder representatives to monitor progress on the implementation of the plans.

• UN Convention and Capacity Legislation

Deputy David Stanton (FG): asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform further to Parliamentary Question No. 7 of 13 December 2007, if he has received advice regarding changes which need to be made to the National Disability Strategy in order to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities from the high-level group, cross-Departmental implementation group; if not, when he expects to receive same;

Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform (Deputy Brian Lenihan): Ireland was in the first group of countries to sign, subject to ratification, the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities when it opened for signature on 30 March, 2007. A high-level, cross-departmental implementation group was established in 2007 to advise on any changes to the Government’s National Disability Strategy that may be required to enable the State ratify the Convention. This group has developed a work programme to address matters that need to be aligned with the UN Convention in order that ratification may take place. It is the Government’s intention that the Convention will be ratified by Ireland as quickly as possible, taking into account the need to ensure that all necessary requirements under the Convention are being met. In so far as my own Department is concerned, there is a need to reform the law on legal capacity of vulnerable adults. The Government’s Legislative Programme contains a commitment to bring forward a Mental Capacity Bill. That Bill is an important element of the programme of work on the Convention. I am glad to report that the Scheme of the Bill is at an advanced stage of development in my Department.

• Rehabilitation Services

Deputy Dan Neville (FG): asked the Minister for Health and Children the number of people with learning disabilities sent abroad for rehabilitation; the reason individuals are sent abroad for treatment; the cost of same;

Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children (Deputy Jimmy Devins): As part of the Multi-Annual Investment Programme 2006-2009 under the Disability Strategy, the Government provided the Health Service Executive with an additional €75m in both 2006 and 2007. This funding included monies to provide new and enhanced services for people with disabilities, to implement Part 2 of the Disability Act 2005, which came into effect on June 1st 2007 for the under 5s and also for the continuation of the implementation of the transfer of persons with intellectual disability from psychiatric hospitals and other inappropriate placements. The Government is also honouring its promise in relation to the Multi-Annual Investment Programme for people with disabilities, with a further €50m investment which was announced in the 2008 Budget. The Deputy’s question relates to the management and delivery of health and personal social services, which are the responsibility of the Health Service Executive under the Health Act 2004. Accordingly, my Department has requested the Parliamentary Affairs Division of the Executive to arrange to have these matters investigated and to have a reply issued directly to the Deputy.

• Medical Cards

Deputy Fergus O’Dowd (FG): asked the Minister for Health and Children if she has plans to increase the income guidelines for medical cards and general practitioner visit cards;

Minister for Health and Children (Deputy Mary Harney): …The Programme for Government commits to the following: indexing the income thresholds for medical cards to increases in the average industrial wage; doubling of the income limit eligibility of parents of children under 6 years of age, and trebling them for parents of children under 18 years of age with an intellectual disability. My Department is currently carrying out a review of the eligibility criteria for medical cards, which is expected to be completed by autumn 2008. When that review is completed, my Department will consider how best to progress the commitments in the Programme for Government in relation to medical card eligibility. The review of the eligibility criteria for medical cards will also give effect to the Towards 2016 commitment to review the eligibility criteria for the assessment of medical cards in the context of medical, social and economic/financial need, with a view to clarifying entitlement to a medical card.

• Speech and Language Therapy in Ballyfermot

Deputy Aengus O´Snodaigh (SF): asked the Minister for Health and Children the waiting list for speech and language therapy in the Ballyfermot area; and the steps being taken to address this issue.

Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children (Deputy Jimmy Devins): As part of the Multi-Annual Investment Programme 2006-2009 under the Disability Strategy, the Government provided the Health Service Executive with an additional €75m in both 2006 and 2007. This funding included monies to provide new and enhanced services for people with disabilities, to implement Part 2 of the Disability Act 2005, which came into effect on June 1st 2007 for the under 5’s and also for the continuation of the implementation of the transfer of persons with intellectual disability from psychiatric hospitals and other inappropriate placements. The Government is also honouring its promise in relation to the Multi-Annual Investment Programme for people with disabilities, with a further €50m investment which was announced in the 2008 Budget. The Deputy’s question relates to the management and delivery of health and personal social services, which are the responsibility of the Health Service Executive under the Health Act 2004. Accordingly, my Department has requested the Parliamentary Affairs Division of the Executive to arrange to have these matters investigated and to have a reply issued directly to the Deputy.