Mobility Allowance Scheme - Ombudsman publishes special report to the Houses of the Oireachtas

The Ombudsman, Emily O'Reilly, yesterday (24 October 2012) issued a special report to the Dáil and Seanad. "Too Old to be Equal - A follow-up" reports that the Department of Health has, for the past twelve years, been operating the Mobility Allowance scheme on the basis of a condition which is illegal. The Mobility Allowance is a monthly payment made by the HSE to people with a severe disability "who are unable to walk and who would benefit from occasional trips away from home". The Allowance has been in existence since 1979 and is currently worth a maximum of €208.50 per month.

The Department has known about this illegality since at least 2008 but has failed to correct matters. The illegal condition is the inclusion within the scheme of an upper age limit of 66 years which is contrary to the Equal Status Act 2000. The Ombudsman also reports that, despite having agreed to do so in April 2011, the Department of Health has failed to implement her recommendation that the illegal upper age limit be dropped. As a consequence, the Department has knowingly allowed the scheme to continue to operate on the basis of an illegality. What this means is that people with a disability who are over 66 years, and who apply now for the Allowance, will not even have their applications considered.

The Department has very recently (October 2012) rejected a further similar recommendation from the Ombudsman. This recent Ombudsman recommendation was made following the investigation of five new complaints from people refused Mobility Allowance because of the illegal upper age limit. These complaints were made after the expiry of the period within which the Department of Health had agreed to remove the illegal upper age limit. The Ombudsman's recommendation was that the upper age limit should be removed from the scheme generally and that the complainants' applications should be re-considered without reference to the upper age limit.

In her report, the Ombudsman rejects the Department's position that it cannot act on her recommendations because to do so "would create liabilities the State could not afford". The Ombudsman's position is that the continued disregard of the law by a key State body is quite unacceptable. The Ombudsman says that she does not accept that a decision by the Department to remove the illegal upper age limit would necessarily expose the State to spending which it cannot now afford. What we absolutely cannot afford, says the Ombudsman, is that a key State body would continue knowingly to disregard the law of the land.

Yesterday's report is by way of a follow-up on the Ombudsman's investigation report of April 2011 entitled Too Old To Be Equal? An Investigation into the illegal refusal of Mobility Allowance to people over 66 years. In that investigation the Ombudsman found that the inclusion of an upper age limit for the Mobility Allowance was illegal because it was in breach of the Equal Status Act 2000. One of her recommendations then was that the Department of Health should revise the Mobility Allowance scheme so as to render it legal and in compliance with the Equal Status Act and that this should be done within six months (by 21 October 2011). The Department accepted that the upper age limit is illegal and also accepted the recommendation and the timescale for its implementation. It is now a full twelve months following the expiry of the agreed time limit for removing the illegal upper age limit and the Department has not yet acted.

Ombudsman's report of 24 October to the Houses of the Oireachtas

For further information contact:

Fintan Butler - Tel 639 5650 or e-mail fintan_butler@ombudsman.gov.ie

or

David Nutley, Communications Officer, Tel 01-6395610 or 086 0231420 or e-mail david_nutley@ombudsman.gov.ie