Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

Each scheme is different and has different requirements. Where medical evidence is required it will take some time. To get the carer's allowance one must show that the person for whom one is caring is in need of full-time care which involves a medical certificate. It quite often happens that an application is made with insufficient information on means or household income and that can give rise to an appeal. The Deputy mentioned some instances where different information would be sought.

As a control measure it is probably just as well that not everyone gets everything on the first go. We try to ensure the processing times are quite quick. It is easy to focus on the jobseekers in the first instance and say that is where there are delays but given that the Department receives 2 million applications each year, some are very speedily dealt with, many within one or two weeks. The appeals and the processing times can be two separate things but there are problems in appeals too and going to oral hearings, etc.

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