Mr. John McKeon:

This reflects what I said in my introductory statement about striking a balance between protecting the interests of the taxpayer and controlling the scheme on the one hand and trying not to frustrate people's access to entitlements on the other. Everyone in the Department would like to see us deliver those services more quickly. They tend to be more difficult. In some ways the average paints a picture which is worse the reality. That figure would include situations where somebody has had an application for disability allowance turned down and then gets a review, which takes time. Then there might be an appeal. The average includes all of those situations. It is not just the clean cases, for want of a better term.