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APPENDIX 5 Ms Clíona O Rourke Clerk to the Committee of Public Accounts Leinster House Dublin 2 17 July, 1996 Dear Ms O Rourke I refer to my first intervention at Page 15. On looking at my reply in the light of the very specific question put to me by deputy O Keeffe “Will the department’s medical staff interpret the medical condition of people or will the health board’s medical staff continue to play its role in this regard?” I feel that my reply was incomplete and may have been misleading. I had felt that at the time and wrote to the Deputy immediately after the meeting. Copy of letter attached. I feel it would be more appropriate if the following could be substituted for “We expect however that medical examinations will continue to be done by health boards. It is somewhat analogous to our disability benefit scheme where we accept medical certificates from the person,s GP.” (or added as an addendum to my reply) “We expect however that medical examinations will continue to be done by health boards only where other payments arise such as rehabilitation payments. In relation to DPMA, while medical examinations already performed by Health Boards will continue to be acceptable for existing cases, new cases will be treated analogous to our disability benefit scheme where we accept medical certificates from the person’s GP.” Amended copy herewith Yours sincerely
E McCumiskey Secretary
Mr. Batt. O’Keeffe TD Dáil Éireann Dublin 2 27 July 1996 Dear Deputy You raised some matters in relation to the DPMA scheme at the Public Accounts Committee this morning and in particular in relation to medical examinations. I enclose a leaflet for your information setting out the new arrangements. Until I see the transcript of this mornings proceedings, I cannot be sure if I gave you the correct information on all points. However the factual position is contained in the leaflet. As you can see from it, both means assessments and medical examinations in the future will be carried out by this Department. There may however be occasions where reference will be made to Health Board medical officers where other payments arise say in relation to rehabilitation. This Department will be running a major information campaign shortly and we will be getting in touch with everyone on DPMA to let them know their rate of payment and their local Post Office where payment will be made. Payments will begin to issue from this Department from 2nd October and applications from new claimants will come to us from 1st September. I trust this clarifies the situation. Yours sincerely
E McCumiskey Secretary |
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