Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

With regard to the report now going to the steering group, is there a timeline for the work the group will do on the report and when it will come back to the Minister? Will the straw-man proposal to look at restructuring long-term disability payments include the domiciliary care allowance? I believe it should. Most people would agree that there are ongoing difficulties in this regard. When you deal with someone applying for domiciliary care allowance, you find that it can take two or three applications before that person qualifies. There are difficulties and, when we are looking at disability, we need to look at all of the payments that are available. How does the Minister envisage this working? Does she foresee a cost-of-disability payment for people who are in receipt of the likes of the disability allowance or the invalidity pension or does she foresee a complete restructuring of existing payments? Will the Minister give me her view on that?

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