Ms Anne Vaughan:

It was much higher. The reduction is due in part to getting far better information. For example, families keep diaries and so on. The Chairman will be aware of that from his own work. We will use that model in the carers area and in due course will use it in the disability allowance area.

The medical schemes are the most difficult and take the longest for the reasons outlined. We have used the same model for the carer's allowance. As a means of learning, there have been considerable discussions with the advocacy groups and people who are in receipt of the entitlements. We need to hold discussions with the Irish Medical Organisation, IMO, which represents general practitioners, GPs. We have a new form. While it is far more detailed, we hope that, as with the domiciliary care allowance, the level of approvals at first instance will be higher and we will have all of the medical and non-medical information that we need at the first point.