Social Welfare Code

4. Deputy Mark Wall asked the Minister for Social Protection if he is considering extending the age for domiciliary care allowance from 16 to 18 in budget 2027. [67640/26]

I thank the Deputy for his ongoing interest in that. The domiciliary care allowance, DCA, is payable to a parent or guardian in respect of a child under 16 who has a severe disability and requires continuous care and attention. There are currently 65,950 families receiving this allowance in respect of approximately 75,500 children at an investment of almost €359 million in 2026. DCA stops being paid when a child turns 16. That aligns with the age disability allowance becomes available. If the young person has a disability that significantly impacts their daily living activities, they can then apply for a disability allowance payment in their own right of €254 per week, subject to satisfying the qualifying conditions for that scheme. That compares with a monthly payment of €380 under DCA. I have no plans at this point to extend the age of entitlement for DCA. My focus in relation to carers remains the process of phasing out the means test for carer’s allowance, which is consistent with the policy approach advocated in the programme for Government and by family carer organisations. As the Deputy knows, significant improvements have been made in this area over the last number of years. Where a parent or guardian in receipt of DCA is also receiving carer’s allowance or carer’s benefit, those payments may continue after their child turns 16 where the qualifying conditions are met. There is also the carer’s support grant which is payable where full-time care continues. I am absolutely focused on keeping the range of supports under review. This has been examined and predecessors in the Department tried to make movement on this some time ago but there is considerable debate within communities about this. I am happy to engage with Deputy Wall on how we could do it. We might get a chance with the next question to go through some of the concerns people have in this space.

I am happy to engage with the Deputy on the survey and the feedback on it. DCA is not means-tested or taxable. We discussed with Deputy O'Reilly earlier that we have done a lot of work to try to reduce the burden of the application process and the appeal waiting times. The number of families in receipt of DCA has increased by 41% in the last five years and more than doubled in the last ten. The number of children for whom a DCA is paid has increased by an even further amount. I will certainly engage with the Deputy on it. I have looked at this since he began raising it with me and gone through previous files. There are very differing opinions even with some of the disability groups on it. It would a worthwhile discussion at the committee - I see the Chairman is here - to engage with this and understand where people's feelings are strongest on this and why in particular there is a lot of opposition to it. I would like to engage with the Deputy on the survey and go through it. I can see Deputy Boyd Barrett looking at me as well. I would like to engage on what this change would mean and what the drawbacks of it are. We have to go through those drawbacks, which have been outlined by a number of groups in recent years.

Let us do that and let us bring this to a head. It will not be in advance of this budget but let us bring it to a head over the course of the next number of months and try to get an understanding on some sort of agreed way forward. Previous Ministers tried to change this and they had to stop. We will certainly look at the Deputy's survey, engage with the committee and get a number of different perspectives on that. Ultimately, it is those children and their parents we need to keep our focus on so we do not have that cliff-edge at such an early stage in life. I am happy to engage and will get my office to follow up on that.