Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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423. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection when an application for domiciliary care allowance will be awarded to a person (details supplied) in County Kerry; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [62213/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Domiciliary Care Allowance (DCA) is a monthly allowance payable to a parent /guardian in respect of a child aged under 16, who has a severe disability and requires continual or continuous care and attention substantially in excess of that normally required by children of the same age and the child must be likely to require full time care and attention for at least 12 months. Eligibility for DCA is established primarily by reference to the degree of ongoing additional care and attention required by the child rather than the child's disability.

An application for DCA in respect of their child was received from the person concerned on 08 April 2022. Their application was disallowed as per decision dated 30 April 2022, as their child was not considered to satisfy the qualifying conditions for DCA.

A new application in respect of the child concerned was subsequently received from the applicant on 26 October 2022.

DCA applications are processed in date of receipt order and are currently taking 6-8 weeks to process.

This application is currently assigned to a deciding officer for decision. Once finalised, the person concerned will be notified in writing of the decision details.

I hope this clarifies the position for the Deputy.