The Minister for Health has hastily withdrawn a controversial circular curbing payments to some parents of disabled children following a storm of protest.
A spokeswoman for the Minister, Mr Martin, said yesterday that he had not been informed before his Department instructed the State's health boards to make the cut. He ordered the reversal of the decision yesterday pending a "review".
Government sources said last night it would have been normal for the Minister to be informed in advance of such a politically sensitive move.
However, the relevant officials were on holidays and the full circumstances were not clear.
The circular, sent on July 26th, told the health boards that the monthly €179.80 payment to parents of disabled children would no longer be backdated to the time of diagnosis.
Instead, the Domiciliary Care Allowance was only to be paid from the date of application for the allowance.
This would mean that parents of disabled children who were unaware of the existence of the allowance or who delayed their application for it would lose out on significant sums. The circular countermanded an earlier one sent on July 1st telling health boards that they could, in fact, backdate the payment to the time of diagnosis.
The decision, reported in yesterday's Examiner newspaper, was strongly condemned by disability groups, while Fine Gael and Labour accused the Government of victimising the parents of disabled children in its efforts to control the public finances.
In the face of the outcry, Mr Martin yesterday withdrew the circular and confirmed that payments could now be backdated, pending a review of the operation of the scheme.
Department sources said yesterday that the controversy grew out of an effort to make the administration of the allowance consistent throughout the State.
Since 1973, the official position was that the allowance could only be paid from the date it was applied for.
However, "six or seven" health boards traditionally exercised discretion and backdated the payment for people who had been slow to apply.
The Department of Health issued the July 1st instruction allowing backdating having been assured by the health boards that this would involve no extra cost, the sources maintained.
However, within weeks, one health board had submitted a bill for some €2 million to cover the extra cost of the new regime.
It was the fear that other health boards would also now incur extra costs that were not budgeted for that led to the hasty reversal of the position.
Faced with accusations that he was victimising the families of disabled children, Mr Martin yesterday withdrew the later circular. The scheme will now be reviewed, his spokeswoman said.
Earlier yesterday Fine Gael's health spokeswoman, Ms Olivia Mitchell, said that it "defies belief that a Government, casting about for cost savings, would identify and target families of disabled children".
Labour's spokeswoman on Equality and Law Reform, Ms Jan O'Sullivan, had warned that thousands of carers would lose out on many years worth of financial assistance.
"The number of cutbacks announced since the election now runs to the mid-teens and it is quite clear that Ministers are losing track of the cutbacks, such is the ferocity of the campaign by Charlie McCreevy to penalise the most vulnerable in society for his complete inability to organise public spending," Ms O'Sullivan said.