Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 16 December 2025
659. Deputy Seán Crowe asked the Minister for Social Protection to examine the case of a person (details supplied) who has been denied domiciliary care allowance due to the lack of an assessment of need though they have been waiting for an appointment for some months. [72239/25]
View answerDomiciliary 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.
Eligibility for DCA is not based entirely on the type of disability or diagnosis but primarily on the impact of the child's disability, in terms of the associated overall level of care and attention required by the child compared to a child of a similar age who does not have such a disability.
An application for DCA was received from the person concerned on 15 May 2025. The application was referred to one of the Department’s Medical Assessors for their opinion. Medical Assessors are fully qualified and experienced practitioners who provide an independent medical opinion on the eligibility of the child for DCA for the guidance of the Department's Deciding Officers.
A Deciding Officer disallowed the application for DCA as per decision letter dated 1 October 2025, on the grounds that the child was not considered to satisfy the above conditions for DCA based on the information provided with the application.
The assessment of the substantial extra and continual care needs of children with childhood development and behavioural disorders is more challenging compared to other childhood conditions given the wide spectrum of manifestation of conditions and bearing in mind the age attainment of developmental milestones. In all cases, determinations on eligibility for DCA are based on all of the medical and care needs information provided with the application and while specialist reports and Assessment of Needs reports can be helpful in making quality and efficient decisions, it is important to not that they are not mandatory.
In cases such as this one, where the supplied information does not prove satisfactorily that a child meets the eligibility criteria for DCA, any mention of further reports or assessments is intended as an aide to the applicant as to the type of medical evidence that may prove useful in the future.
An appeal of the disallow decision was registered by the Social Welfare Appeals Office (SWAO) on the 3 October 2025. As part of the appeal, the claim was first reviewed by a Deciding Officer and, following this review, the decision of 1 October 2025 remained unchanged. The person’s file was then forwarded to the SWAO for the consideration of an Appeals Officer.
An Appeals Officer disallowed the appeal for DCA in respect of the person concerned as per decision letter dated 10 December 2025 issued directly by the SWAO.
I hope this clarifies the position for the Deputy.
