APRIL 24 2008

Parliamentary Questions

• Overall Public Expenditure on Disability Services
• Care Assistants
• Service Level Agreements
• Guidelines for Residential Services for Children with a Disability
• Standards for Residential Services
• Determination of Number of Special Needs Assistants
• Annotation on examination certificates

PARLIAMENTARY QUESTIONS

• Overall Public Expenditure on Disability Services

Deputy David Stanton asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance, further to Parliamentary Questions Nos. 140, 141, 142 and 143 of 7 November 2007, the position regarding the overall public expenditure on disability specific services each year respectively since 2004 to date in 2008;

Tánaiste and Minister for Finance (Deputy Brian Cowen): As I indicated in my response to the previous parliamentary questions, the overall allocation of Exchequer funding for the provision of disability specific services is provided for in the annual estimates. The development of policy, the provision of services for people with disability and expenditure on those services in each sector are primarily a matter for the Minister responsible for each sector. Under the Disability Act 2005, each Minister is responsible for allocating out of the moneys available to him or her the maximum amount as he/she considers appropriate for such services having regard to the other obligations which he or she must provide for. Similarly, the relevant Departments are responsible for preparing and reporting progress on their Sectoral Plans. The table provides updated details of the overall public expenditure on disability specific services as reported to my Department by the various Government Departments from 2004 to date.

Any queries in relation to the detail of the provision for and expenditure on disability specific services should be referred to the relevant Ministers. The cost to the Exchequer of the Disabled Drivers Scheme was €53 million in 2004, €56 million in 2005, €68 million in 2006, and €75 million in 2007. The estimated cost to the Exchequer of the Disabled Drivers Scheme for 2008 is €83 million. 

• Care Assistants

Deputy David Stanton asked the Minister for Health and Children if care assistants are employed in all Health Service Executive areas; the role and functions of these assistants; Minister for Health and Children (Deputy Mary Harney): Subject to overall parameters set by Government, the Health Service Executive has the responsibility for determining the composition of its staffing complement. In that regard, it is a matter for the Executive to manage and deploy its human resources to best meet the requirements of its Annual Service Plan for the delivery of health and personal social services to the public. The Executive is the appropriate body to consider the matter raised by the Deputy. My Department has requested the Parliamentary Affairs Division of the Executive to arrange to have the matter investigated and to have a reply issued directly to the Deputy. 

• Service Level Agreements

Deputy David Stanton asked the Minister for Health and Children if the Health Service Executive has issued new service level agreement templates to voluntary providers of disability services; if a deadline has been set for having all disability services provided by voluntary providers to be covered by comprehensive service level agreements;

Minister for Health and Children (Deputy Mary Harney): 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 this matter investigated and to have a reply issued directly to the Deputy. 

• Guidelines for Residential Services for Children with a Disability

Deputy David Stanton asked the Minister for Health and Children the progress that has been made regarding the formulation of guidelines by a primary community and continuing care working group for the provision of services for children with disabilities in a residential setting;

Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children (Deputy Jimmy Devins): The Deputy’s specific 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 this matter investigated and to have a reply issued directly to the Deputy. 

• Standards for Residential Services

Deputy David Stanton asked the Minister for Health and Children further to Parliamentary Question No. 44 of 31 January 2008, when the draft national standards for services for people with disabilities will be available for public consultation;

Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children (Deputy Jimmy Devins): The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) was established on 15 May 2007 as provided for in the Health Act 2007. HIQA is the statutory agency with responsibility for developing standards for health and social care services and then ensuring that the standards are being met. A Standards Advisory Group has been established comprising key stakeholders and service users to develop standards for residential care settings for people with disabilities. I am informed by HIQA that it intends to publish draft standards during the second quarter of 2008. It is understood that HIQA will engage in a public consultation process with the intention of publishing finalised standards following the consultation process.  

• Determination of Number of Special Needs Assistants

Deputy Brian Hayes asked the Minister for Education and Science if in determining the number of special needs assistants to a school under the general allocation model, her Department makes such a determination based on enrolment numbers within that school going back to 2005;

Minister for Education and Science (Deputy Mary Hanafin): I understand that the Deputy is referring to the general allocation system of learning support/resource teachers that was implemented in mainstream primary schools in September 2005. The system provides teaching resources to schools to enable them to cater for children with high-incidence special education needs such as borderline mild general learning disability and mild general learning disability and specific learning disability. The allocation is also intended to support those with learning support needs, that is, those functioning at or below the tenth percentile on a standardised test of reading and/or mathematics. In circumstances where a child has low incidence needs, this automatically attracts an individual resource teaching allocation. The allocation system under the general allocation model was linked to the school’s enrolment and it was decided not to review this aspect until the model had been in operation for three years. This review is now underway. The allocation to schools was however enhanced in the case of schools experiencing large increases in enrolment and which satisfied the conditions under my Department’s Developing School Criteria. Special Needs Assistant support in schools is intended to address the care needs of pupils with special educational needs. Decisions regarding the extent of such support in each particular case are based on the care needs of the individual child. 

• Annotation on examination certificates

Deputy Joanna Tuffy asked the Minister for Education and Science her views on whether it is necessary to have an annotation on examination certificates for junior and leaving certificate students who are provided accommodation during the examination on grounds of specific learning disability and dyslexia;

Minister for Education and Science (Deputy Mary Hanafin): The State Examinations Commission has statutory responsibility for operational matters relating to the certificate examinations, including making arrangements for the marking of work presented for examinations and issuing the results of examinations. A range of accommodations are provided to enable students with disabilities to access the Certificate examinations. For example enlarged print, Braille translation, modified questions, use of a scribe, a reader, a personal assistant, a tape recorder or word processor, may be allowed depending on needs. The scheme was introduced following the report of an expert advisory group, and the introduction enabled opportunities to be provided for exemptions where a candidate was not in a position to demonstrate achievement in a core area of assessment. Annotations on certificates only apply in situations where a core area of a subject is not assessed, or where the mode of assessment used has the same effect. This is used to ensure fairness and integrity vis a vis other students who have been assessed in these components, and in order not to mislead the end user of the certificate.

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