Ray Butler (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the officials from the Department of Social Protection and the groups that represent people with disabilities.

Politicians, in their constituency offices, receive a lot of representations from people who seek help to fill in these forms. The Department has said to us that it has met or is meeting with consultants and GPs. I would like forms to be given to GPs or consultants. GPs and consultants are very busy people. As a result, when a person applies for an allowance for the first time his or her GP or consultant might only write a one or two line letter. Such a short letter has led to a lot of problems in the form of further information being sought by the Department or a claim being refused. I propose that we consider creating a standard form to be filled in by a GP or consultant. It would help the Department and move the process forward. On a regular basis in my constituency people are asked by the Department to seek further information from their GP or consultant. It is on the second occasion that the applicant will receive pages full of information but when he or she started it was only a one or two line letter. It would be an excellent idea to have a standard form to give to a GP or consultant.

My next issue is decisions made about desktops. Can a decision be taken to view the customer with a system that was on-stream before? If a difficult decision must be made then I suggest that the patient or customer is viewed by the Department, consultants and doctors. There is no reason that system cannot be reintroduced.

I totally agree with the Senators and Deputies that the forms are very strenuous. One of the questions asks whether social welfare payments are being made to a family member or other people living in the house. Surely a click of button on a computer can find out such information. A 27-page form is very off-putting. The applicants already have lot of things going on in their lives and must survive from day to day. How much does this toing and froing cost the State when decisions can be made by viewing the customer's records?

I strongly appeal to the officials from the Department that we look at a system for consultants and GPs and suggest the initial form could be supplied to start the process. I apologise for repeating myself but I have seen, on a regular basis, instances where a GP or consultant gives a two line letter on the first occasion but the application is returned. When the patient or customer seeks further information he or she is supplied with pages of stuff. Why can that information not be supplied at the start of the process? It would save a lot of time if a GP or consultant used a standard form when a person seeks the payment.