A group lobbying against the Department of Social Protection’s review of the domiciliary care allowance (DCA) will protest outside Leinster House today. The DCA Warriors, a group set up by parents of children with special needs, will begin their march from Stephen’s Green at 12.30pm.
The allowance is a payment to the carer of a severely disabled child under 16 years. The rate is €309.50 a month. The DCA scheme was administered by the Health Service Executive before it was transferred to the Department of Social Protection. Some applications for allowance are currently being reviewed by the department.
A spokeswoman for DCA Warriors, Trish Flood, said the Government’s decision to review allowances had had a detrimental impact on parents. “The Government are making it more and more difficult to prove that these children need substantially more care than other children of their age.
“We have to fight for every little crumb of help when we should be spending more time on our children than paperwork.”