Mark Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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328. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if he will initiate a review of his Departments processes for assessing the entitlement to the domiciliary care allowance, given the fact that nearly a third of rejected applications are overturned on appeal; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33118/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Domiciliary Care Allowance is a non-means-tested payment of €360 per month to a parent or guardian for a child aged up to 16 who has a severe disability. The child must require care and attention substantially over and above that required by other children their age.

Applications for DCA are decided by a Deciding Officer on an individual case by case basis, based on the details provided in the application form by the applicant and from the child’s GP / Specialist. If any additional information or supporting documentary evidence is provided with the application, this is also considered.

All new applications for DCA are referred for the opinion of a Medical Assessor (MA) of the Department. The MA considers the severity of the child's condition, the expected duration, the child's associated care needs and provides their professional opinion in relation to the child's eligibility for DCA.

The main reason that applications for DCA are unsuccessful is that the child does not satisfy the medical criteria for the scheme. Eligibility for DCA is not based entirely on the child's disability or diagnosis, but primarily on the impact of the disability / diagnosis in terms of the associated care and attention required by the child compared to another child of the same age without their disability. Where decisions are overturned on either review or appeal this does not mean that the initial decision was incorrect. A decision can be overturned because the person requesting a review or appeal provides additional information which was not made available when the original decision was made.

My Department is committed to providing a quality service to parents and guardians of children with complex needs and has recently added the DCA scheme to MyWelfare, the Department’s online platform. In the development of the online application process, the opportunity was taken to explore how the design of the online application form might make the process easier for applicants based on their feedback. This has led to additional explanatory information being added and the use of web links to provide further information on the scheme’s criteria.

The development of the online application involved consulting with DCA recipients and national carers’ advocacy groups. This engagement process will continue to illicit feedback on the service on an ongoing basis. Information on applying for DCA is now also supported through a video to assist applicants at each stage of the process. The video and further detail is available at www.gov.ie/dca.