asked the Minister for Health if he will permit the health boards to pay an allowance to the relatives of invalided people for the performance of domestic services in the homes of such people.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Domestic Service Allowance.
21.
My Department has advised health boards that in the provision of home help services priority should be given to (a) families in stress conditions especially those with young children who otherwise would have to be taken into care and (b) the aged, particularly the infirm and house-bound living alone. Health boards do not generally pay allowances to persons who are caring for relatives and I do not consider that I would be justified in advising them to do so in view of the demands on available funds for services for the priority groups.
The Deputy will be aware that among the social insurance and assistance services administered by the Department of Social Welfare is a prescribed relative allowance of £3.50 a week payable in certain circumstances to an incapacitated person aged 69 or over with whom a specified relative resides for the purpose of providing full-time care and attention.
Would the Minister not agree that the conditions attaching to the aged relative allowance are so stringent that they apply in very few cases and would he not consider enlarging an liberalising the principles on which it is paid?
I should inform the Deputy that there was a substantial increase provided in the last budget for this type of person.
But the conditions were not changed.
The conditions were not changed. As I said in my reply, I advised the health boards to make a special effort in giving this allowance to help families in distress conditions and the aged in order that they could be maintained in the community rather than have to go to institutions. At present there are 15,000 home helps and we hope that this number will be increased.