Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach in his then role as Minister for Social Protection clearly took action because the processing of maternity benefit payments is now up to date and claims from mothers going on maternity leave are processed as they start their leave. The message I want to get out to pregnant women is that those applications are being dealt with immediately and they will have their payment immediately. Approximately 18,750 claimants are in receipt of maternity benefit payment at present.

The Deputy is right in saying the Department has acknowledged delays in processing claims from February to early June, during which period some mothers experienced a delay of up to four weeks. The Department has apologised for those delays. It is a very efficient Department and it dealt with the problems. The delays were temporary and were caused by a combination of staffing and operational difficulties that can arise in a Department from time to time. The Buncrana office, which processes the maternity benefit claims, had a very high staff turnover. The time required to source staff to fill the vacancies and their subsequent training presented issues.

On the operational side, a new IT system was put in place which took a bit of time to become fully operational. The good news is that the applications are being dealt with immediately as they arrive in the office. Further good news is that the processing of paternity benefit claims is up to date. The Department continues to make every effort to ensure people are dealt with in a timely manner. To alleviate any delays, additional staff were assigned to the area and staff are working overtime, including on Saturdays.

Every initiative has been taken by the then Minister and by the Department to ensure that when claims for maternity benefit and paternity benefit are received, they are dealt with immediately. Both are completely up to date at present. Clearly, action was taken to deal with the temporary operational and staffing issues I have described.

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