The question of medical examinations for disability allowance or invalidity pension is another preoccupation raised at the time of the annual Social Welfare Bill. I regularly encounter large numbers of cases involving people who are unable to work and in receipt of disability benefit for years but are refused invalidity pensions. They are told by the Department that they are not permanently unfit for work. On some occasions medical officers deal with them in a manner that suggests they would be out of pocket if an invalidity pension was payable.