Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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228. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection further to Question No. 165 of 29 September 2015, if she will review this case; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34572/15]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Applications for domiciliary care allowance (DCA) in respect of 2 children were received from the person concerned on the 1st July 2014 and 2nd July 2014. These applications were not allowed as the children were not considered to satisfy the qualifying conditions for the allowance. A letter issued in respect of each child on the 19th September 2014 outlining the decision of the deciding officer to refuse the allowance. The person concerned subsequently lodged appeals against the decisions, in advance of the appeals being heard, further medical opinions were requested from another of the Department’s medical assessor’s and the applications were again considered by a deciding officer. As the deciding officer did not consider a revision of the original decisions to be warranted, the applications were forwarded to the Social Welfare Appeals Office (SWAO) for the appeals to be processed. The SWAO advised the person concerned on the 6th August 2015 that the appeals against the decisions had not been allowed.

The decision/appeal process for these applications is now complete. A further review can be carried out if the person concerned has new or additional information which was not available to the deciding and appeals officers when they made their decisions. Alternatively, it is open to her to re-apply for the allowance at any time.