Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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406. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the progress to date in undertaking review in the case of a child (details supplied) who has been assessed as having ADHD, whose application for domiciliary care allowance has been refused, who has again been expelled from school on the basis of disruptive behaviour but has been deemed by her Department as being equal to any other child of a similar age; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [61845/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Domiciliary Care Allowance (DCA) is payable to a parent/guardian in respect of a child, aged under 16 with a severe disability who requires continual or continuous care and attention substantially over and above the level of care and attention normally required by children of the same age and the child must be likely to require this level of care and attention for at least 12 consecutive months. Eligibility for DCA is established primarily and essentially 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 was received from the person concerned in respect of their child on 23 May 2022. Their application was disallowed as per decision dated 20 July 2022, as their child was not considered to satisfy the qualifying conditions for DCA.

A request for a review of the above decision was received on behalf of the person concerned (via PQ) on 17 August 2022.

Following a review of their complete application, including the completed application form and all available information and evidence provided in support of their application, including the information provided via PQ (Ref No 42365/22), a deciding officer decided that a revision of the above decision of 20 July 2022 was not warranted. A written notification of the review decision dated 29 September 2022 was issued to the person concerned.

The person concerned subsequently appealed this decision to the independent Social Welfare Appeals Office. (SWAO)

As part of the appeals process, a deciding officer completed a further review of their application, including all further information and documentary evidence that was subsequently provided in support of their appeal and decided that a revision of the review decision of 29 September 2022 was not warranted. A written notification of this further review decision dated 29 November 2022, was also issued to the person concerned.

Their DCA file (ref no 22/21484) was sent to the SWAO on 29 November 2022 for further consideration by an appeals officer.

The SWAO will notify the person concerned directly of the appeal outcome in due course.

I hope this clarifies the position for the Deputy.