26.— (1) Section 186B (inserted by section 15 of the Act of 2008) of the Principal Act is amended by inserting the following definition:

“‘medical assessor’ means an officer of the Minister who is a registered medical practitioner;”.

(2) The Principal Act is amended by substituting the following section for section 186C (as amended by section 19 of the Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2008):

“186C.— (1) A person who has not attained the age of 16 years (in this section referred to as the ‘child’) is a qualified child for the purposes of the payment of domiciliary care allowance where—

( a) the child 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,

( b) the level of disability caused by that severe disability is such that the child is likely to require full-time care and attention for at least 12 consecutive months,

( c) the child—

(i) is ordinarily resident in the State, or

(ii) satisfies the requirements of section 219(2),

and

( d) the child is not detained in a children detention school.

(2) A medical assessor shall—

( a) assess all information provided to him or her inrespect of an application for domiciliary care allowance, and

( b) provide an opinion as to whether the child satisfies paragraphs ( a) and ( b) of subsection (1).

(3) In determining whether a child satisfies paragraphs ( a) and ( b) of subsection (1), a deciding officer shall have regard to the opinion, referred to in subsection (2)( b), of the medical assessor.”.