State taking legal advice on allowance, says Gilmore

About 4,500 people with a severe disability have been told the Government does not want to remove their mobility allowance as it seeks to widen the numbers eligible for it while not increasing the cost to the exchequer.

Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore told the Dáil the Coalition was taking legal advice following a ruling by the ombudsman that the State had acted illegally in refusing the allowance to new applicants over 66 years of age.

The Government wants legal advice as to how it “can proceed in a way that is reasonable and sustainable and does not cause undue distress to those in receipt of the allowance”.