Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The people who make the payments are not the same people who make the decisions. When a decision is made, the case is transferred to the section that makes payments. There is a delay but we are trying to reduce it. It may cause undue distress but there is not a single person who has been awarded a claim and who cannot get money from their local office. We make house calls to ensure people who have been awarded a claim get a supplementary welfare payment in the interim and nobody suffers hardship as they await their payment. The Deputy is right that having been awarded something and having to wait seven or eight weeks is a pain, particularly if a person has already waited a long time. The Department is constantly looking at staff resources and reviewing where people can be sent when they are freed up from other projects. When possible, we put people where they are needed most, in this case our appeals section.

See this speech in context