Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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113. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if the domiciliary care allowance of a person (details supplied) will be reviewed. [39474/24]

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 requiring continual or continuous care and attention substantially in excess of the care and attention normally required by a child of the same age and where the level of the child's disability is such that the child is likely to require this level of care and attention for at least 12 consecutive months. This level of care and attention must be required to allow the child to deal with activities of daily living in areas such as mobility, personal care, feeding/diet, communication, speech/language, sleeping, behaviour, safety, sensory issues , including any other additional needs.

A basic qualifying condition of DCA is that the relevant child must be aged under 16 at the time of application.

An application for DCA was received on 5 September 2024 from the person concerned. This DCA application was disallowed by a Deciding Officer as per decision dated 16 September 2024. Based on the information provided, the person being applied for was over the age of 16 and therefore, was not considered to satisfy the conditions for DCA.

On foot of your request for a review of eligibility for DCA in this case, a full re-examination of this DCA claim and my Department's original decision of 16 September 2024 will now be undertaken by a Deciding Officer. Once that review has been completed, the person concerned will be notified directly of the decision in writing.

An application form for Pension Caring Supports has been issued by post to the person concerned.

I hope this clarifies the position for the Deputy.