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.”.