You are correct - there have been a few changes to the Domiciliary Care Allowance Scheme since March 2007.
One such change is that foster care allowance and repayments received under the Health (Repayments) Scheme 2006 are no longer counted as means. In addition, foster parents can now be beneficiaries of the Allowance.
As you are probably aware, only the personal means of the child are taken into account when conducting the means test for Domiciliary Care Allowance - not the means of the parent(s). The means of the child include payments of compensation (for example, following a court action or in respect of injuries or disabilities sustained by the child) and the money is assessed on the basis of the interest obtained. This annual interest is divided by 12 to give a monthly value which is then deducted from the monthly Domiciliary Care Allowance on a euro per euro basis.
Eligibility for Domiciliary Care Allowance is determined mainly in reference to the amount of additional care and attention required by the child, rather than to the type of disability involved, subject to passing the means test.
In assessing an application, the HSE's Senior Medical Officer must be satisfied the child requires continuous care and attention (substantially greater than that normally required by a child of the same age).
No medical conditions are debarred from Domiciliary Care Allowance but certain conditions (for example, diabetes, epilepsy or asthma) are not normally considered unless there is a very high degree of additional care and attention required by the child.
You don't give any indication on what grounds your application for Domiciliary Care Allowance has been turned down so it is hard to advise you on what grounds/basis to make your appeal.
If you wish to post again on the subject I'll see if I can advise, or of course feel free to PM me if you wish.
CMCR.