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Dáil Debates & Questions
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November 17 2009 Parliamentary Questions
PARLIAMENTARY QUESTIONS Deputy Olivia Mitchell (FG): asked the Taoiseach his views regarding the inclusion of a question on autism in the next census. Minister of State at the Department of the Taoiseach (Deputy Pat Carey): As part of the preparatory work for the 2011 census the CSO conducted a public consultation by inviting members of the public and various interest groups to make submissions on the topics to be covered, and on the outputs to be produced. A notice to this effect was published in the national press in September 2008 seeking submissions, and all government departments were contacted for their input. This phase of the process has now concluded. A Census Advisory Group was set up in Autumn 2008 to consider the submissions received and advise on the questions to be tested in a pilot survey planned to be carried in April 2009. The Census Advisory Group is representative of central and local government, the social partners, universities, research bodies and other users of census data along with the relevant CSO personnel. Over 90 submissions covering 31 topics were received in total, among them submissions on the subject of disability, and in particular on the subject of autism. A specific sub-group was convened to consider the disability questions on the census form. This sub-group was composed of representatives from the National Disability Authority, the Equality Authority, the Disability Federation of Ireland and the National Federation of Voluntary Bodies. The proposal to list specific disabilities within the disability question, namely to make specific reference to autistic spectrum disorder, or downs syndrome, in the category ‘A learning or intellectual disability’ was considered at the second meeting of the group. The group concluded that it would not be appropriate, nor would there be enough room on the census form, to list all individual disabilities. However, in order to go some way towards accommodating this request the existing (2006) category ‘A learning or intellectual disability’ was split into two categories ‘An intellectual disability’ and separately ‘A difficulty with learning,remembering or concentrating’ for testing in the pilot survey. The group felt that this approach narrowed the categories and thus helped address the issue of autism, while allowing the question to remain as inclusive as possible. The new wording of the disability questions which were tested in the Census Pilot Survey in April 2009 were as follows:
Deputy Thomas P. Broughan (L): asked the Minister for Transport if he will report on the establishment of a working group within his Department, including the Health Service Executive, Bus Éireann and organisations that represent persons with a disability, to examine ways of enhancing the rural transport services; the remit of the working group; if it is preparing a report for publication; when the report will be published; the members and organisations that are represented on the working group; Minister for Transport (Deputy Noel Dempsey): Maintaining and developing rural passenger transport services is one of the objectives of my Department. It is therefore vitally important that the resources available for rural transport are utilised as cost effectively as possible and that best possible service is achieved from these resources. In that regard, earlier this year, I asked Bus Éireann to work with Pobal to explore the potential for achieving better rural transport service delivery through closer working and better resource utilisation between the various service providers. Arising from this, a number of pilot initiatives have been instigated to explore how the various transport services in rural areas might be jointly developed so as to enhance their coverage and take up. In addition to Bus Éireann, the initiatives involve the Health Service Executive in its capacity for providing transport to access health services; the Department of Education and Science in respect of school transport services; Pobal in respect of Rural Transport Programme services; and voluntary bodies such as the Irish Wheelchair Association. Pilot projects are being developed in the North West and North East to explore how existing transport providers might make more effective use of their individual resources by working in closer cooperation with each other. The types of pilots envisaged for collaborative action include “collect and connect” type services; hospital feeder services; co-ordination of disability services; ticketing integration; co-ordinated information provision and journey planning; increased synchronisation of partner systems and processes. It is expected to be at least 12 months before an integration model incorporating results from the various pilots will be sufficiently developed to allow it to be applied more widely across the country. Bus Éireann has established a central steering group to provide advice and guidance on strategic, regulatory and legislative issues to the working groups which oversee the two pilots. The other members of the steering group are officials from my Department, the Department of Education and Science and Pobal. Deputy Mary Upton (L): asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, further to Parliamentary Question No. 838 of 3 November 2009, the number of prosecutions in respect of persons found to be claiming disability benefit fraudulently; Minister for Social and Family Affairs (Deputy Mary Hanafin): The number of Illness Benefit (previously known as Disability Benefit) cases currently with the Chief State Solicitors Office (CSSO) at various stages of the criminal prosecution process is twenty. Ten of these cases were submitted in the first ten months of 2009. In addition, a further seven cases are currently being considered by the Department for criminal proceedings. The number of Illness Benefit cases finalised in court up to the end of October 2009 was nine. Criminal proceedings in these nine cases were initiated prior to 2009. The court outcomes were as follows: — Six clients were fined and three clients received a suspended jail sentence ranging from two weeks to six months. Deputy Terence Flanagan (FG): asked the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the amount of money allocated for the three adaptation schemes including the number of applications outstanding; the value of these applications; Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government (Deputy Michael Finneran): Allocations totalling €79.562 million for 2009 were notified to localauthorities under the Housing Adaptation Grant for Older People and People with a Disability,the Mobility Aids Grant Scheme and the older Disabled Persons and Essential Repairs GrantSchemes on 7 May 2009. Having regard to the continued priority which the Governmentattaches to these schemes and following an evaluation of the ongoing level of demand forgrants, the level of expenditure to date and the capacity of local authorities to process andapprove additional applications in the current year, I approved a supplementary allocation ofapproximately €12.5 million to some 26 local authorities on 12 October, 2009.The detailed administration of the grant schemes, including the assessment and approval ofapplications and the payment of grants to individual applicants, is the responsibility of therelevant local authority. It is a matter for each local authority to decide on the specific level offunding to be directed towards each of the individual schemes, from within the allocationnotified to them by my Department, and to manage the operation of the schemes in their areasfrom within their allocation. Over the period 1 January 2009 to 31 October 2009, a total of€53.218 million, relating to some 8,550 individual grant payments, has been recouped by my Department to local authorities under the various grant measures. Details regarding the current status of individual applications under each of the grant measures are not available in my Department. Deputy Ruairí Quinn (L): asked the Minister for Education and Science the number of special needs assistants estimated to be working in schools; if he will provide a breakdown of this number by primary and post-primary sector; Minister for Education and Science (Deputy Batt O’Keeffe): There were 8,582 Special Needs Assistant posts in the primary sector and 2,014 in the post primary sector at the end of the 2008/2009 school year. As the Deputy will be aware, the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) is responsible, through its network of local Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs), for allocating resource teachers and Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) to primary and post primary schools to support children with special educational needs. The NCSE operates within my Department’s criteria in allocating such support. Deputy Phil Hogan (FG): asked the Minister for Education and Science the date a school(details supplied) in County Carlow opened; the cost of building works involved; the date of the original school opening; if the school is classified as junior national school or infant national school; Minister for Education and Science (Deputy Batt O’Keeffe): The school to which the Deputy refers is an all boys junior school catering for junior infants, senior infants and 1st class pupils. The information in relation to the date the school opened and the cost of the building works involved is being extracted from archived records. Details will be forwarded to the Deputy in due course. This information would also be available in the Parish records. Since 1999, however, the school has received almost €328,000 for a variety of capital works including:
The school also receives an annual minor works grant to carry out minor works to the school’s building. The current per annum value of this grant is €5,500 flat rate plus €18.50 for each mainstream pupil and €74.00 for each special needs pupil. |
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The CSO, in consultation with the Census Advisory Group, has now finalised its analysis of the results of the census pilot. This analysis has indicated that the revised questions on disability tested in the pilot have been successful and accordingly should be recommended for inclusion in the 2011 census questionnaire. In this regard it is important to bear in mind that only questions that have been tested and have been proven to have worked in the census pilot can be considered for inclusion in the 2011 census. Inclusion
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