Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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499. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if there has ever been or if a scheme is in place to deal with claims (details supplied); if this is deemed separate from a disablement payment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6158/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Disablement benefit is one of the benefits payable under the occupational injuries benefit scheme to an insured person who suffers a loss of physical or mental faculty as a result of an occupational accident or a prescribed occupational disease that was sustained on or after 1 May 1967.

In 2010, an agreement was reached by my Department with the National Coal Miners Group Committee that a mechanism would be put in place to deal with current or potential entitlements for former miners who suffer from pneumoconiosis, in accordance with the existing terms of the occupational injuries benefit scheme.

All claims must meet the criteria for disablement benefit before they can be referred to the Chief Medical Officer of my Department. These include:

• The insurability of employment must be established (the person must have been employed as a miner on or after 1 May 1967).
• The disease must have developed on or after 1 May 1967.
• The Chief Medical Officer must then be satisfied that there is evidence of pneumoconiosis.