Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

The need for additional resources to deal with the significant increase in the number of appeals received by the social welfare appeals office has been recognised by the Department of Social Protection. The annual intake of appeals grew from 14,070 in 2007 to 32,432 in 2010, which was an increase of 18,362 or 130.5%. It appears that some 30,000 appeals will be received in 2011. I am pleased to inform Deputies that nine additional appointments have been made to the office in recent weeks. Three of these appointments are permanent assignments and six are temporary assignments for a period of two years, subject to review. They will augment the three appointments that were made to the office in 2010 and bring the total number of appeals officers serving in the office to 29.

The Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2010 facilitated the use of experienced retired former appeals officers, strictly on a temporary basis, to help to bring the backlogs under control. As a result, eight such officers have been employed since July of last year, which represents the equivalent of three additional full-time staff. The quasi-judicial nature and complexity of the work means there can be a relatively long lead-in time before new appeals officers become fully competent to deal with the full range of cases coming to the office. In that regard and to ensure there is no loss of output during the training period of newly appointed officers, the retired former appeals officers will continue to assist in the office until the end of this year.

In line with a commitment in the programme for Government, the matter of providing further additional staff will be kept under continuous review. In conjunction with the provision of extra staff, the chief appeals officer is undertaking a review of the current operating model with a view to achieving a more effective throughput of appeals, while ensuring any progress does not conflict with due process in terms of the rights of people who are appealing and adherence to the requirements of natural justice.

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