Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

We have also established the central units that are working effectively. They have no front of house contact but are solely making decisions on claims. The next central unit will open in Tallaght on 6 July. Huge progress has been made and the productivity of the staff has really improved. From January until May this year they processed 250,000 claims while in the same time last year they processed 146,000.

Through the establishment of the central units and the efforts being made all round to ensure applicants can be dealt with as speedily as possible progress is being made, although I appreciate there are delays in some areas.

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