Ms Niamh O'Donoghue:

I certainly hope so. There is a difference when somebody applies for something which relies entirely on a contribution history and we have that to hand. We can then process something very quickly. In other words, if somebody applies for jobseeker's benefit, that claim can be potentially be decided within a very short space of time, which has been the experience in recent times. It becomes more complicated if the employment history stretches across Europe and we must validate insurance contributions elsewhere.

Considering the other schemes we organise, there are dimensions to conditions of eligibility. For example, for assistance-based schemes, there is a means assessment, which takes some time. We hope that if a person has previously given means data, we should be able to use it again, which can shorten the process. If the information can be validated through another public source, it can also shorten the process. There are various opportunities available to try to reduce processing times for a number of different schemes.

The schemes which have given us greatest cause for concern over the past couple of years has been those where there is additional conditionality due to medical assessment, and where there is a need for somebody to provide information for a desk assessment, or if it is a review case to attend for in-person assessment. That can lengthen the process and what we have tried to do in that space is increase the number of medical assessors working in the Department and change our business processes and the kinds of forms and information we are seeking from people at initial application so we can ensure we get the range of information we need to make an assessment on a case. I hope all those kinds of elements will lead to a position where processing times for claims are no longer an issue on the political agenda.