Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 422: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the person who is entitled to claim for the special allowance for diabetics; the budget spent by his Department on the scheme for the past five years; and the corresponding number of persons who availed of the scheme for the same period. [32683/05]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Diet supplements are provided through the supplementary welfare allowance scheme which is administered on my behalf by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive.

Any person who is receiving a social welfare or Health Service Executive payment, who has been prescribed a special diet as a result of a specified medical condition and who is unable to provide for his or her food needs from within his or her own resources, may qualify for a diet supplement under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme.

Diet supplements are subject to a means test. Under the existing scheme, the amount of supplement payable in individual cases depends on which of two categories of diet, low cost or high cost, has been prescribed by the applicant's medical adviser, and the income of the individual and his or her dependants.

In accordance with the regulations governing the scheme a diabetic diet is categorised as a low cost diet and the amount of diet supplement payable would be €44.00 less one third of the applicant's income — one sixth in the case of a couple.

Details of the budget spent and the number of recipients of diet supplements in the past five years are shown in the following table: