Vol. 191 No. 11
asked the Minister for Health if he is aware of the recent death from malnutrition of a mentally defective woman whose sole means of livelihood was a disability allowance of 22/6d. per week; if he has considered the recommendation of the Dublin City Coroner to the effect that the regulations should be amended to empower inquiry officers to investigate living conditions of mental defectives in receipt of allowances; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
11.
asked the Minister for Health the maximum allowance payable to mental defectives in receipt of disability allowances; if he is aware of a recent case of death due to malnutrition of a woman in receipt of an allowance of 22/6d. per week; and if it is proposed to increase the rate of allowance at an early date.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 10 and 11 together.
I have seen a press report of the case referred to by the Deputy. I am not clear, however, as to the purpose of the suggested amendment of the Disabled Persons (Maintenance Allowances) Regulations. The investigation carried out by an Inquiry Officer is restricted exclusively to the ascertainment of entitlement or continuing entitlement on grounds of means to an allowance. Any extension of the range of enquiry would be inappropriate in the context of the Regulations, the essential object of which is to assist relatives in maintaining a disabled person at home by affording, regularly, a measure of financial assistance to that person.
The maximum allowance payable under these Regulations is £1 2s. 6d. a week. Expenditure on these allowances has increased in recent years and is now approximately £700,000 per annum. I regret that I am not at present prepared to consider any alteration in the scale of allowances which were increased as recently as 1st January, 1960. Where, in a particular case, an allowance is considered insufficient, application may be made to the public assistance authority for a home assistance allowance. The Regulations provide that income from public assistance shall be disregarded in determining the amount of disablement allowance.
Is the Minister aware that a mentally defective person would not have the sense to go to look for extra assistance from the home assistance officer? Surely the Minister knows that. Only wise guys would have that sense.
The person to whom this question refers did not live in isolation. She had her parent, her sisters and other relatives, and surely the obligation was on them to look after her.
Surely there is something grievously amiss when a situation of this kind can arise without any additional assistance being provided to give this afflicted person an income of more than 22/6d. on which to survive? Would the Minister inquire into the circumstances of this case to determine how it came about that no supplement was made available to provide this afflicted person with the wherewithal to survive in modest comfort?
I have already explained in reply to Deputy Sherwin that this unfortunate person had a mother, sisters and other relatives. I think the responsibility lay on them to look after her, the community having come to her assistance to the extent of the disability allowance paid to her.
Surely if the circumstances are such that a person over 21 years of age, and afflicted, is in fact in dire need, quite apart from the proper discharge of responsibility by members of the family, is there not a clear obligation on the community to insist that no one need die of hunger in our midst? Is the Minister satisfied that the machinery which is available to avert such tragedy was properly functioning in regard to this case?
First of all, it is a matter for the local authorities but, at the same time, the assumption upon which all our statutes are based, and on which the Constitution is based, is that there is regard to be had to the principle of family responsibility without which we cannot possibly have any communal life at all.
Accepting at once the principle of family responsibility, if a person passes the age of 21 years and is, in fact, destitute, as I understand the position the community accepts responsibility for protecting that person from destitution. Is the Minister satisfied that, in this case, where a woman died of starvation — acknowledging that she was an afflicted person and probably not in full possession of her mental faculties — the proper machinery to avert hunger and destitution was functioning in this case? Will he inquire from the local authority how it came about that a woman living in our midst should die of hunger when means were available to avert it if they had been invoked?
I cannot hold the appropriate assistance authority responsible in a case where other people did not fulfil their responsibility. This unfortunate woman could have been in an institution if her people had moved to put her there. Unfortunately, they did not.
