Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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900. To ask the Minister for Health the reason chronic regional pain syndrome is not classified as a chronic physical disability in Ireland when it holds such a classification in the UK; his plans to classify it as such in the future [23067/14]

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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There are a number of definitions of disability contained in legislation, e.g. Disability Act 2005, the Employment Equality Acts 1998 and 2004, the Education for Persons with Special Education Needs Acts and Equal Status Acts, which are used for particular purposes, e.g. the Census and qualifying criteria for the Department of Social Protection income supports such as the Domiciliary Care Allowance, Disability Allowance etc. These definitions define disability in terms of an individual's functional ability in their environment, rather than a medical diagnosis or condition. In the context of the provision of health and personal social services, the Minister for Health does not classify specific medical illnesses or conditions as a disability.