Mr. John McKeon:

Absolutely. We are working with stakeholder groups such as the National Disability Authority to improve the quality of our application forms and communications so that we do not end up having to request that additional medical information is provided. If the Deputy has a concern about particular cases, he should contact the Department or me at any stage. We will examine them. We try to provide the best possible information to clients and encourage them and support them through the claims system. As mentioned by Ms Gordon, one of the reasons the number of domiciliary care allowance appeals has fallen so significantly is that together with stakeholder groups we have reviewed the application forms. We have made them easier for people to use and they not account for fewer appeals. We want to do the same with carer's allowance. That will happen from January. We did that in association with Family Carers Ireland, which is a stakeholder group. We are doing those things and working with stakeholder groups to try to ensure that the application process works first time . The majority of appeals arise because we did not get the necessary information and not because the client did not deserve the payment. We are trying to deal with that issue.