Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Since the economy collapsed in 2009, there has been an explosion in the number of applications for social welfare payments and, as a consequence, an explosion in the number of appeals. In 2009 the average number of appeals received was 15,000. By 2012, it was 35,000.

I am thankful that the Deputy has acknowledged the heavy investment we made and work that has been done in upgrading the IT and clearing all the backlogs other than disability, which we are clearing now. I inherited that situation. Some 17,800 appeals were finalised in 2009 but the equivalent figure in 2012 was 32,600 due to the explosion in volume across all the schemes. We have been seeking to improve the application process and the speed at which deciding officers make their decisions and improve decision-making.

Deputy Catherine Murphy asked why people are rejected at the initial stage. Sometimes, as the Deputy knows, it is due to a lack of clear medical evidence that is sufficient for the purpose of the initial application, and that is provided at the appeal stage. We have been trying to use organisations such as Citizens' Information centres to get people to improve the quality of their applications and the certification of their medical cases for access to a particular scheme.

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