Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 86 and 123 together.

I assure the Deputies that provision of good customer service is paramount to the Department and there is a good understanding and awareness of the importance of medical-related schemes to customers. A total of €3.4 billion was spent on illness, disability and caring schemes in 2013, including a total of €2.5 billion on the four main schemes involving a medical assessment - namely, disability allowance, invalidity pension, carer’s allowance and domiciliary care allowance.

The current processing times for the main illness and caring schemes are as follows.

These processing times are a significant improvement over previous processing times and the numbers of people awaiting a decision at the time when I came into office. The average number of weeks to decide on a new carer's allowance application has decreased from approximately 26 weeks at that time to a current average of 12 weeks. I compliment the staff in the Department of Social Protection who have worked with all their might and main to overhaul the system I found in place when I became Minister and to produce these improvements. On the question of whether there is room for more improvement, we are working on that constantly.

There are currently approximately 3,500 carer's allowance applications awaiting decision. The equivalent number in 2012 was 11,600. I know the Deputies value public service staff, but in this case I believe the staff of the Department should be recognised for the hard work they have done to slash waiting times for all of these allowances.

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