Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)

Notwithstanding the strides made by the Minister in the short time she has been in office and given the magnitude of the problem which was unfolding when she began in office, is it an opportune time to seek further redeployments to ensure a dramatic reduction in waiting times and backlogs under a number of headings? At the same time we could reduce the kind of duplication taking place that is laborious, time consuming and non-productive. It entails officials poring over the same kind of documents, with some cases on four or five occasions.

Will the Minister confirm to the House that a waiting time of one year is too long, particularly in examples like carer's allowance? Some of those cases go back 18 months. I accept the Minister is only in office a very short time and I congratulate her for the work she has done. The magnitude of the problem unfolding now is such that unless something is done about it in the very near future, the whole system will break down.

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