Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

I am informed by the chief appeals officer that the number of appeals waiting to be processed is 17,655. This is a reduction of some 3,126 on the number at the same point last year when the Deputy's party was in power. Fianna Fáil created a meltdown in the economy and, thanks to its efforts, unprecedented numbers have lost either their jobs or businesses. These individuals have been obliged to apply for social welfare payments. When the Deputy referred to the increase in the number on social welfare, he was actually complaining about his own party and the depredations it visited upon the country. The Deputy's party has the singular responsibility for the hundreds of thousands of people who lost employment and their businesses because of the party's failure to deal with the banks and the disastrous decision on the bank guarantee. If the Deputy is going to lash out, perhaps he should look in the mirror and at the Fianna Fáil Party first.

The number of appeals waiting to be processed must be seen against a background where there has been a significant increase in the number of appeals from 14,070 in 2007 to 32,432 on Fianna Fáil's watch in 2010. Current indications are that there is now a slight drop in the number of appeals being received in 2011 because the economy has begun to stabilise, although unfortunately it is at a very low level. We must all fight to get the economy to recover.

The annual intake this year is still likely to be close to 30,000 for the year. In an effort to reduce the backlog of appeals, the Department made nine additional appointments to the office earlier this year on my becoming a Minister. These assignments augment the three appointments made to the office during the Fianna Fáil tenure - a massive increase - in 2010. This brings the total number of appeals officers serving in the office to 29. In addition, a number of initiatives have been undertaken with a view to increasing capacity and the combination of these initiatives and additional staff resulted in 22,226 decisions being made in the first eight months of 2011. This compares to the 17,000 appeals completed under the remit of the Fianna Fáil Minister in 2010, and the 10,911 decisions made in 2009.

We are dealing with a vastly expanded load because of Fianna Fáil's destruction of the economy and we are actually dealing with them faster and more comprehensively. More emphasis is placed on deciding claims on a summary basis where possible, and enhanced business processes and ICT have also increased the capacity of the office. Some 3,000 cases registered before 31 December 2010 have been ring-fenced, with a team of ten of the office's most experienced appeals officers having been freed from all other work to concentrate on clearing the Fianna Fáil backlog by the end of this year. I hope the Deputy understands who has caused the build-up of appeals, although we are sorting it out. The Deputy's party caused it.

Overall it is expected that the increase in the number of decisions being made by appeals officers will continue and this, combined with the slight reduction in the numbers received, should lead to ongoing reductions in the backlog of appeals and processing times.

See this speech in context