Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

We have all been on the doorsteps, around DART stations and so on in recent weeks. We hear many horror stories in particular about waiting times for carer's allowance and even at times for carer's benefit, which Deputy Penrose and I worked on in earlier Dáileanna to get it introduced. I think the Minister told us there is a very high number of applications for carer's allowance. I think there were something like 15,500 applications and nearly 18,000 for disability allowance between January and September last year. Is the number of applications more or less consistent in demographic terms or is the Department tending to get more and more applications for the key allowances I mentioned? The Minister made the point to a number of us in response to an earlier question that about 85% of claims, I think, are awarded and appeals are made by just 1% of those refused. At the same time, though, some of the waiting times for oral appeal hearings are incredible. In the case of carer's allowance, one must wait 28.4 weeks for an oral hearing and 24.3 weeks for a summary decision. The position is very similar in the case of carer's benefit and disability allowance, at 17.1 weeks and 23 weeks, respectively. It was our ambition in previous eras to have an independent statutory process for appeals. The Minister has again told us that one can appeal to the High Court and so on-----

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