Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 23 July 2019
2804. Deputy John Brady asked the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated full-year cost of increasing the amount available for the hearing aid grant under treatment benefit to €1,000 per hearing aid. [33669/19]
View answerThe cost of increasing the hearing aid grant, which is available under the treatment benefit scheme, to €1,000 per device will depend on a number of variables. These would include the volume of claims received, the cost of the appliance/s purchased, whether increasing the available grant amount leads to an increase in the price of appliances and the percentage cost of appliances covered by the grant at that time.
Currently the grant covers 50% of the purchase price of a hearing aid to a maximum of €500 per appliance.
Based on 2018 expenditure figures, when grants towards the purchase of over 26,000 appliances were provided, a doubling of the available grant from €500 to €1,000 could potentially increase expenditure from the €12.7m cost in 2018 to over €25m per annum.
I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
