Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

The budget was difficult but because of the state of the economy difficult decisions were made with regard to social welfare. Specifically, the domiciliary care allowance and carer's allowance were protected. I said this at the time of the budget because I regarded it as very important to protect those payments. One quarter of the number of children now in receipt of the payment have been awarded it by my Department. I can understand the Deputies' concern about individual cases but to say there is an agenda being pursued by staff in the Department or by medical assessors to deprive parents of children of the domiciliary allowance is simply not borne out by the fact of the numbers.

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