Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We have provided additional staff for the service. There are currently 412 people across all grades in the community welfare service. In light of the increased level of applications and as part of the budget, we have secured agreement for approximately 74 additional staff to be assigned to the community welfare service. Recruitment has commenced for these additional staff and it is anticipated they will be in place in the coming weeks, by the end of quarter 1 of 2023. In the interim, until those staff have been recruited, 30 social welfare inspectors have been temporarily reassigned to the community welfare service to assist with claims-processing since the beginning of November. There are no backlogs at the moment. We have managed to clear them. A lot of work went into it. There was an increase in the number of applications as a result of our extensive promotional campaign telling people this support is available. We have managed to reduce the waiting times significantly and applications are being processed. In cases where there are delays, it is generally because some of the information has not been provided. We give people time to provide the information in a humane way. Sometimes they simply cannot get the information or they do not understand it is required.

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