John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I turn to a broad issue within the Department which is the turnaround time from application to payment. I know from my own office that it is taking a great deal of time. The one we point to most is the invalidity payment. These are people who have made contributions and worked and we estimate that in some cases it takes approximately 18 months from the time an application is made to payment. It is too long. Obviously, there are a range of waiting times for the different payments that the Department has figures on. It knows the averages. It is not getting much better in our opinion from our anecdotal experience in the office with regard to the people we deal with when it comes to applications, assessments and the wait to final payment. It is something I have raised before but we have not seen any improvement.