Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)

I will deal with the issue of processing times later in respect of my other questions. I tabled this question because of the high rate of appeals to the Department. I am concerned about the high rate of successful appeals because if the system operated effectively there should not be such a high rate. I will cite three examples from last year. More than half of all appeals for the carer's allowance were upheld in 2007 and 2008 but the people who appealed had to wait six months for the appeals to be granted, on top of their initial application time; 40% of appeals for jobseeker's allowance last year were upheld and the people had to wait five months; 54% of appeals for disability allowance were upheld and those people also had to wait six months. What is going wrong in the initial assessment of those claims? It is not a question of medical reports because they are not all health related. That would not apply in the jobseekers area. Where are the mistakes in the initial assessments in those three examples? There are many other examples. Approximately 60%, of the areas covered by the Department have a high rate of successful appeals. What is going wrong? The processing times in the first place are a problem and so are those for the appeals as half the people who are entitled to the payments must wait several months.

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