Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

Deputy Ó Snodaigh has suggested that parents should be given a longer period of notice before a review takes place. I will examine whether that is possible. The Deputy is aware that the domiciliary care allowance was taken over from the HSE and the Department of Health only a short number of years ago. The assessment for the domiciliary care allowance and the reviews are medically based. Therefore, as the Deputy is aware, it depends on the level of medical information and witness brought forward. It is a desk-based review because the medical advice, diagnosis, judgment and so on is given by the child's medical advisers. I am unsure whether the Deputy is suggesting there should be further direct medical examination of the children by the Department. The problem in that case would be that it might impose considerable additional stress on families if they had to undergo another set of medical examinations. I am unsure if that is what the Deputy meant.

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