Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State has confirmed what I said. He has read out the same passages that I read to him a moment ago and that is the reason I tabled these amendments. He has confirmed that we are shifting the emphasis to the deciding officer. He has clarified that it is the deciding officer who only has "to take into account". What does that mean? They have to take into account the medical testimony but then they can make a decision to refuse despite the fact that the medical testimony from the GP says somebody needs care. They can take that it into account, have regard to it and then ignore same. That is what is happening. That is precisely the reason I tabled an amendment saying that medical decision-making should be done on the basis of medical opinion supplied by professionally qualified medical personnel, that is the GP or a consultant, and not by a deciding officer.