Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This decision was on medical eligibility. The Minister will be aware that the High Court was scathing about what it referred to as the Department's disdainful mindset to the evidence of long-term experts, all of whom had seen the child in question, and condemned the fact that despite this evidence, the Department insisted on making its decision based on the desk top review done by its medical assessors.

Is this not a problem which exists outside the domiciliary care allowance area? There are many social welfare payments which depend on one's medical condition, including invalidity pension, disability allowance and illness benefit. Does the same system not apply throughout the Department? We have come across numerous cases where people have applied for one of those medically-based entitlements and have submitted evidence of experts who have seen the patients but where the desk top review still triumphed at the end? Will the Minister accept that this is a problem which is not just confined to the domiciliary care allowance area?

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