Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Before we conclude, I wish to raise the issue of the Department's performance. I accept and know how performance targets are established by the management board to measure performance within the Department, but, as a committee, we have a responsibility to monitor the ongoing spending within the Department on an annual basis. The most effective tool for us to do that is through the departmental performance targets. As the Minister is aware, we set out, in our pre-budget submission, issues relating to departmental performance and the need to modernise and update those performance targets. I accept that the performance targets have been pretty much historic targets from year to year in terms of the number of payments issued, and so forth. However, the difficulty is that we, as a committee, believe that they do not effectively drive the type of change that we believe is needed in terms of the delivery within the Department. That is not taking from that fact that we all find, in our day-to-day dealings with the Department, that it is very responsive to the needs to individuals, but I think more can be done to try and improve the processing time for applications. The difficulty is that when payments are delayed for people, it causes financial hardship.

We spoke earlier about the exceptional needs payment. That is available to some people. It is not available to others for various reasons. Nevertheless, it does cause financial hardship for people. There are mechanisms that can be used to speed up these applications within the confines of the challenges that are there in terms of making sure that there is proper scrutiny of every application. I will provide the example of the time, previously, when there were ongoing issues with the domiciliary care allowance. Deputy Ó Cuív was the Minister in charge at the time. That application form was radically transformed to facilitate parents of children who were on the autism spectrum. That made a significant difference in the volume of applications that went for review and subsequently went for appeal at the time. The committee has highlighted specifically one area in its report, namely, common errors that are made in application forms. As public representatives, we all know that one of the biggest mistakes that many people make is they fail to sign the application form. If the Department was to make the public aware of where particular applications fall down on a regular basis in order that they could be addressed by people in advance of submitting their applications, it would help to speed that up. Again, in terms of when applications are granted on review, there are commonalities in terms of why they are granted on review. If they were compiled and made available, it would help to streamline the application process.

The committee feels that the targets that are there at the moment need to be modernised and updated. We would like an update from the Minister on that. If not today, she might come back to us at a later date. We are also anxious to have a meeting with the senior officials to go through this particular aspect of the programme. We feel that it can help to improve the operation of the Department and the oversight by senior management of the Department, as well as bringing an extra layer of accountability that is required by this committee and the Oireachtas because of the size of the budget that we are dealing with on a day-to-day basis.

It is important that we look at ways of how we can have measurables that drive the type of dynamic change that we need to see happening across the Department of Social Protection. The committee made reference, for example, to the working family payment. Earlier today, the committee spoke about the exceptional needs payment. Again, if the outcomes of applications for non-means-tested exceptional needs payment were compiled, including those that were granted and those that were refused, that would give the committee sight of what is happening with that, and perhaps endorse the approach that has been taken and articulated by the Minister today and address any inadequacies that we, as individual public representatives and Members of the Oireachtas, are identifying across our constituencies. If the Minister is unable to respond, perhaps she will reflect on the points I have raised. It is an issue that the committee would like to deal with in more detail with the officials in the near future.