![\"Arlo](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/4763600_11_articleinlinemobile_Linda_20Neill_20baby_20Arlo_8614.jpg\" "\\"Arlo")
Arlo Neill at home with his parents Nason and Linda and his brother, three-year-old Nason. 20-month-old Arlo suffers from intestinal failure.\u00a0Picture: Moya Nolan<\/p>\nA 20-month-old child with a rare medical condition is being denied universal subsidies because of his disability.<\/p>\n
Arlo Neill\u2019s parents, in Booterstown, Co Dublin, are bringing a case for discrimination to the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) on the basis that he is being denied the payments all parents receive to subsidise childcare and early learning.<\/p>\n
Arlo\u2019s family are missing out on \u20ac5,000 in State funding annually because the scheme does not cater for a child with his level of disability. He has a complex condition that afflicts the intestines and requires him to be fed intravenously and receive a range of medicines daily.<\/p>\n
His parents had located a creche for him, but when his condition came to light, the owner said they would not be able to accommodate him. Arlo\u2019s medical team agreed that his needs meant he would be unsuitable for a group setting.<\/p>\n
His parents sourced a nanny with a healthcare background, who would care for Arlo at home during the day while his mother, Linda, returned to work. However, the family discovered that the universal national childcare scheme (NCS) did not cover Arlo\u2019s care.<\/p>\n
Arlo Neill at home with his parents Nason and Linda and his brother, three-year-old Nason. 20-month-old Arlo suffers from intestinal failure.\u00a0Picture: Moya Nolan<\/p>\n
To qualify for the NCS, a childminder must meet specific criteria, and the Neills\u2019 arrangement was the equivalent of having a nanny in their home, which is not covered.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way it is designed, it looks like they simply forgot about parents who go back to work,\u201d Linda Neill says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI understand why they don\u2019t want to supplement the employment of nannies, as it is something of a privilege to have somebody in your house looking after your children.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n But what they have done, through omission, is left out the children with special needs who cannot go into a group setting.\n <\/p>\n
She has engaged with her local authority, Pobal, the agency that administers the NCS, and with the Department of Children, Equality, and Disability about her dilemma. She received responses, but none, she says, that offered a viable solution.<\/p>\n
The family\u2019s complaint to the WRC is under equality legislation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Equal Status Act 2000 requires that the minister make reasonable accommodations for children who cannot attend group childcare settings on the grounds of disability,\u201d the complaint reads. \u201cCurrently, there are no provisions within the NCS to accommodate these children.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Department of Children, Equality, and Disability was contacted, but no reply was received by the time of going to press.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 20-month-old child with a rare medical condition is being denied universal subsidies because of his disability. Arlo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35750,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,5606,7843,18,1652,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-35749","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-childrens-health","11":"tag-disability","12":"tag-eire","13":"tag-family","14":"tag-featured-news","15":"tag-featurednews","16":"tag-headlines","17":"tag-ie","18":"tag-ireland","19":"tag-latest-news","20":"tag-latestnews","21":"tag-main-news","22":"tag-mainnews","23":"tag-news","24":"tag-top-stories","25":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}