Brendan Ryan (Dublin North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

An analysis of the table suggests that if the joint committee wishes to address concerns about delays in processing appeals, it is pointless inviting a delegation from the social welfare appeals office to come before us. The office has demonstrated that it has made considerable progress in processing appeals, whereas the Department is moving in the opposite direction. The presentation also indicates that 69% of delays in processing invalidity pension appeals can be attributed to the Department, while the equivalent figures for carer's allowance, disability allowance and illness benefit appeals are 60%, 58% and 49%, respectively. If one was seeking to establish a process to improve processing times, one would tackle the largest problem, that is, delays in the Department.

Ms Gleeson has indicated that the office is now working more closely with the Department and has held a couple of meetings with officials. In terms of trying to tackle this issue, a full-time, cross-functional, interdepartmental project team needs to be established in the office. The chief medical officer, the assistant secretary and the social welfare appeals office are much too busy to rely on infrequent meetings to address this issue. A permanent project team must be established to work on this issue if the delays are to be tackled. This team must prioritise the main source of difficulty, namely, the Department.

With regard to carer's allowance appeals, the two tests for carer's allowance are, first, that the applicant is providing full-time care and, second, that the person being cared for needs full-time care. The second test is carried out by medical assessors. Are the medical assessors qualified doctors? I have examined a number of the decisions the assessors have made and compared them with the condition of the applicants which I have personally observed. Some of the decisions that, on medical grounds, the person being cared for does not need full-time care are unbelievable. They suggest a serious medical assessment is not carried out in many cases and that some form of paper exercise is carried out by a person who is either not qualified to assess medical evidence or simply does not care. It appears the assessors have a quota to fill and once this has been done, they are not concerned about other applications. This is a major problem.

I met someone with cancer who is physically incapable of moving and experiencing associated mental health issues. The interpretation of a medical assessor in this person's case was that full-time care was not required. This is not acceptable. I continually advise persons in such circumstances to reapply for the allowance as it is the only avenue open to them. However, this approach adds to the workload of the office. I have serious concerns about medical assessments in the case of many social welfare payments.