Vol. 509 No. 4
210 Mrs. Owen asked the Minister for Health and Children if he will give details of all services available to handicapped children under two years of age; and if he will publish the review of the payment of the domicillary care allowance, carried out by his Department and completed in 1998. [20301/99]
In addition to the services required by children with disabilities under two years of age which are provided by the acute hospital sector, a range of other services are provided, either directly by the health boards or by specialist voluntary agencies on their behalf. The principal services provided to children of this age would be early intervention services and in particular, services from the multi-disciplinary teams; the members of which would include, as appropriate, psychologists, social workers, nurses, occupational therapists, physiotherapists and speech and language therapists.
The Deputy will be aware that I indicated in a number of previous replies about domiciliary care allowance that following receipt of a number of inquiries about the qualifying age for this allowance, I arranged for the matter to be examined. I have provided full information on the findings of this examination in replies to a recent Adjournment Debate and parliamentary questions. The outcome of the examination concluded that best international practice recognises the additional care required for children with a disability under two years of age. Very often it is not simply a matter of care but the kind and intensity of the care required. While the international experience varies in the type of and eligibility for schemes, the underlying trend is to offer some support to children under two years of age.
I would like to reassure the Deputy that I support these conclusions. It is in this context that officials from my department are discussing the possibility of funding being sourced for the extension of DCA in the estimates for 2000.
