Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy and ask the Chairman for his indulgence. Deputy Broughan is not here and I know his amendment has not been moved. I want to assure the committee that the legislation never contained the word "unforeseen". A number of years ago the word was inserted in departmental guidelines for practical purposes. Due to a particular case, and I think we all know the case, the word or set of words were removed from the guidelines by myself and my Department in January of this year and we now have reverted to the spirit of the legislation. Deputy Broughan's amendment was attempting to do something but there is no need for it as the words have been removed from the guidelines and the practice has reverted to individual deciding officers making individual assessments on somebody's presentable needs.