Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Most of the Department's schemes are demand-led, which means targets are irrelevant. If applicants qualify for a benefit, they will get it. The big issue we encounter all the time is the delay in processing applications. On the other hand, we also find that if the Department is looking for information, it is a case of 28 days or bust. If the information is not provided on time, applicants must start again. The Department is very ruthless with the public, as State agencies tend to be. The medical card people are even worse. They demand that the public meets their requirements within a given timeframe. However, when it comes to reciprocation, the same is not necessarily the case.

This is particularly relevant to means-tested payments. Mr. Egan indicated that 75% of all disability allowance applications were processed within the target timeframe. Why was that figure not 100% or at least in the high 90s? Some cases may be particularly tricky.

A rate of 25% not being done within eight weeks is extraordinary. I presume the Department is getting similar figures for jobseeker's allowance, farm assist and for all the means-tested payments. The second question that was not answered is that if 25% are not done within eight weeks, is it taking ten weeks, 12 weeks, 15 weeks or 100 weeks? How long are they taking because in some cases we are finding cases that seem to go on forever? It seems to be very patchy. Performance has to be reciprocal. We expect the customer to perform and we legitimately expect the Department to do the same. The other issue is that having gone through the report quickly, I have not seen any mention of the appeals office. That is staffed by social welfare staff and while its decision-making is independent, it is administered by social welfare staff. Appeals are going on for a year and more in some cases. What are the performance indicators and what is the performance against the performance indicators? That is the big question of this Department. I presume the Department has target numbers on the RSS, CE and Tús. They do not seem to have been achieved in terms of participants. Is that a policy issue, in that the policy does not match the target? Is the policy too restrictive to allow people to go on the schemes? What is the problem here? What we are definitely seeing is that there is a shortage of people on these schemes. If I am told it is a policy response, in our pre-budget submission we would seem to have headroom to suggest to the Minister that she consider relaxing the criteria for getting on the schemes, the length of time people can stay on the schemes, the means testing and a whole lot of other aspects of these schemes. Until demand matches the target, the Minister will not be under any financial pressure because presumably, she got funding for the target rather than the actual number of participants.