Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There were a good few questions there. I will try to cover them all. The Deputy can come back to me if I leave something out. I will start with the additional needs payments. At the end of December 2022, over 97,000 applications for additional needs payments were processed and awarded. This represents a 63% increase in awarded applications on the same period in 2021. The average amount paid for heating additional needs payments, ANPs, from the beginning of June to the end of December was €471 for electricity bills and €472 for gas. We have been centrally involved in providing support to those fleeing the war in Ukraine, providing more than 36,000 additional needs payments to this cohort in addition to the provision of ongoing social welfare payments. In response to the cost-of-living pressures in 2022, we ran two advertising campaigns in spring and summer of last year to promote awareness of additional needs payments. These campaigns created significant spikes in claims at those times as public awareness of the scheme increased, drawing on our operational resources. These challenges were met by the operational area.

Applications for additional needs payments vary and are often quite complex, reflecting the individual circumstances being experienced. Where it is clear that a person has an urgent or immediate need, every effort is made to ensure the claim is processed on the same day. As we know, community welfare officers are very experienced and can generally assess when a case is urgent enough to require an immediate response. Approximately 10% of community welfare service, CWS, payments to customers across the country are made on this basis. That really shows how responsive the service is to urgent customer needs. A high percentage of applications are now finalised within two weeks and there is currently less than two weeks' work on hand. A lot of resources have been put into this area. I know this is something members have raised with me. We certainly have brought the waiting times down. However, there are cases where people come in to submit an application and are asked to come back with further information. It could be six or seven weeks before they come back with it. That is it. We cannot make them come back any sooner. It can sometimes cause delays when applicants do not bring in the information requested.

On staffing, recruitment has commenced for 74 additional staff. It is anticipated that they will be in place by the end of 2021-----