2026-06-18

3. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Social Protection if he plans to address barriers - administrative, financial and others - to accessing social welfare payments; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46287/26]

The Minister and I discussed this at committee. I received a response from the Minister for Health advising that the general medical services, GMS, contract does not cover the filling out of forms. As the Minister for Social Protection knows, a lot of people require medical information in order to apply for social welfare and other things. Given that filling out forms is not covered, my question is on the significant barriers, be they administrative, financial or otherwise. Once I started to look into this, I realised that there were a lot of people who found it quite daunting to approach the Department of Social Protection. Specifically, my concern is around the people on the medical card.

I thank the Deputy. We are very committed in the Department to reducing any administrative, financial or other barrier that may prevent people from accessing their social protection entitlements. Our schemes are generally accessed through two main mechanisms: by assessing the PRSI contribution record of a person in respect of social benefit schemes; and by applying a means test and other conditions as appropriate in the case of social assistance schemes. In respect of contributory schemes, we have broadened access and entitlements in recent years through the introduction of new schemes such as jobseekers pay-related benefit; the expansion of access to existing schemes, for example, to carer's benefit for the self-employed; and the extension of the duration of schemes. In respect of means-tested social assistance schemes, significant adjustments have been made in income disregards, which have enabled more people to qualify for schemes such as carer's allowance, fuel allowance and disability allowance in recent years. The statistics back up the fact that people are increasingly facilitated in accessing our Department's schemes. Annual transaction volumes have increased from 3.2 million in 2024 to over 3.4 million in 2025. We have sought to make it easier, as we discussed earlier in the context of DCA, through the expansion of the Department’s digital and IT platforms. These developments allow, for example, the auto-award of many payments, including the automatic award of approximately 85,000 back to school clothing and footwear allowance payments, which will be done over July, and the automatic award of 147,000 carer support grants in recent weeks. Many child benefit claims for second and subsequent children are also auto-awarded while the sharing of information with Revenue means that many jobseeker claims can also be awarded without recourse to seeking prior employment records. The Department is also witnessing a very considerable increase in use of our online service platform, MyWelfare.ie. We are continuing to provide in-person and phone-based support services. I will address the issue around the medical cards in my subsequent reply.

Excellent, and I hope that the Minister will confirm to me that people can apply for supplementary welfare allowance in order to pay for the GP. If this is not covered on the medical card and someone does not have the means to pay €80 but absolutely does need to apply for whatever reason, it strikes me that it should be available on the supplementary welfare allowance. I am hoping that the Minister will confirm that to me this morning. If it is not available, then I am hopeful that the Minister will say where people can get the money. People cannot magic up €80. If they have not got €80, they have not got it. Many GPs will fill out a form, but only on a grace and favour arrangement. More and more people are finding that their GPs will not fill out the forms or that they have to pay for a visit outside of the GMS. That is €80. Perhaps the Minister will confirm that people can apply for supplementary welfare allowance because that is not the experience of my constituents. I am hoping that the Minister can confirm that this morning.

To put Deputy O'Reilly's remarks in context, we discussed this at committee last week. I followed it up. I am going to follow this up with the Deputy. It was raised by many Deputies following her intervention. The Department of Social Protection does not require applicants to obtain private assessments or specialist medical reports to submit an application for a social welfare payment. All available evidence submitted as part of the application is considered. In addition, the Department funds GPs to complete the medical portion of relevant social welfare application forms. I am going to follow that issue up within the Department and with the Deputy. We are happy to engage with any Deputy where there is this issue. We do not need to know the specific circumstances. I do not want people being unable to access social protection support for the want of not having income. It goes against everything the social protection system stands for, with a lack of resources preventing someone from accessing the system that is supposed to help them. I am very focused on this. I am going to be doing a lot of work on this but this is my initial response and I am happy to engage with the Deputy on it.

That is very welcome to hear and I am more than happy to work with the Minister. I can provide him with practical examples of where this has happened. I can also say, as I used to represent nurses and I do not hold a massive candle for doctors, that many GPs do this. The problem usually arises when a person goes in to get a form filled and they find out that maybe there is a new GP or they have moved to a different type of service and they just do not do that form. People are not seeing the same GP when they go back and they are coming to my office. When they go for supplementary welfare allowance, that is not always clear cut either and a lot of the time people are sent back. They are told to go to the doctor because the doctor has to do it but the doctor does not have to do it, as the Minister for Health has confirmed to me. I really welcome that the Minister is going to examine this matter. I can tell him that I will work with him and I am sure plenty of others will as well because it cannot just be an issue in my area. I would imagine it is across the board.

I thank the Deputy. We will engage with the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, in relation to the communication of this. It is something we have noticed coming up in forums as well - that there is a genuine consideration that we require very complex medical assessments. We do not. I also meant to emphasise in relation to the domiciliary care allowance earlier that we do not require assessments of need. That is still out there. We are trying to minimise the burden on those seeking to access the services. I certainly look forward to feedback from all Deputies in relation to this. We will continue to work with the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill. I will also ask my Department's officials to communicate this and make sure that this is communicated as we redesign forms and application processes. Forms, for many people, are no longer the means of accessing our services. We will communicate very clearly what is required and, most importantly, what is not.