Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I do not believe the Government on this one. There is no justification to the changes it is making. From an objective analysis of the current legislative wording, any sane and sensible person will see the Government is tightening the criteria around the eligibility to justify current practice which is completely wrong and unfair.

It inflicts unnecessary hardship on legitimate applicants who, I repeat, are vulnerable and disabled people who are being refused supports and benefits they should get when they are ill and vulnerable and need support. That is what is going on. It relates to people who are being refused at first instance and who subsequently get it on appeal when they go through hoops or come to Deputies' clinics. These Deputies go to oral hearings or submit letters to get these people through the hoops to get them benefits and supports they should have got in the first place.

Bizarrely, our amendments suggesting that the medical eligibility criteria and the diagnoses of GPs and qualified medical practitioners be simply accepted and not second-guessed by unqualified, non-medical deciding officers have been ruled out of order on the basis that they are a charge on the Exchequer. If someone meets the medical criteria for a benefit they are entitled to apply for and a medical practitioner testifies that they are eligible, how can that be a potential charge on the Exchequer? That is rubbish. It is a disingenuous way of trying to cover up what is going on here, which is a tightening up of eligibility rules. There is no doubt about it.

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