Do the medical referees take into account the type of occupation which claimants may have had prior to their becoming ill and availing of disability benefit? Are physical examinations undertaken by referees specifically geared to the determination of the assessment of the illness which is described?

Approximately 80,000 claimants are requested each year to attend a medical referee examination and some 50,000 of these are examined; about 14,000 or 26 per cent are deemed to be capable of work in the first instance. In the event of an appeal, these are normally re-examined by a different medical referee who may or may not confirm the first medical opinion. But approximately 75 per cent of people who appear before medical referees are continuing in benefit.

I asked the Minister was the occupation of applicants who appear before medical referees taken into account? If a person is deemed capable of working that assessment must relate to the occupation he had. I have a particular case where an applicant who was receiving an invalidity pension from the UK for a particular condition was examined by a medical referee of the Minister's Department and he decided that the applicant was now capable of work. The report was duly sent to the Social Security Appeals Tribunal in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Before that tribunal the medical referee's report on this man who was aged 46 years stated quite clearly that the man was capable of work though he could no longer work as a labourer. Is that man, at 46 years of age, now going to become a highly skilled worker, or a clerical worker, or a computer controller because the medical referee has decided, in Ireland even though he is obtaining a UK invalidity pension, that he is capable of working? Can the Minister not see that this is quite outlandish?

The Deputy's point is a difficult one to answer but, generally speaking, the concept of being capable or incapable of work is used in a very general way. It would be very difficult to operate any system whereby one would have to relate the capability of a person to, strictly a particular kind of work. In legal terms people are sometimes advised, in common law cases, to seek light work, and we find there is really no such thing as light work. All considerations are examined in these cases, but the fact that a claimant is incapable of doing his or her particular job, but is capable of doing 101 other jobs, would not automatically mean that that person could remain indefinitely on disability benefit.