Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister. I accept that all of the budgetary measures have been put in place. I refer, however, to the time it takes for carer's allowance applications to be processed. This is a very acute issue for somebody who gives up work to care for someone at home. This might happen suddenly if there is no other choice, especially when a member of the family is experiencing depression and the carer has to be with him or her full time. Carers are often asked to apply for supplementary welfare while they are waiting for a decision. I have seen cases where the whole process, from application through to review and appeal, has taken 25 or 26 weeks. I assume that where an appeal is successful, the applicant is paid from the date of the application. However, there are people living under very serious financial constraints while they are waiting for a decision. They may have no choice but to give up work or to cut back on their work hours to provide care and they then rely on a process that seems to be very slow.

I thank Deputy Canney. No more than they go to his office, people who have made applications also come to my constituency office. There are times when people make applications that not all of the information is provided. This is probably the main reason for delays, to be honest. I have spoken to officials about this. They say that if all of the information is in, and all of the necessary documentation has been completed by the doctor and whatever else, the application can be processed very quickly. As I said earlier, the current average time for a decision is six weeks. It has to be processed and, as Deputy Canney said, people can get the supplementary welfare allowance until such time as it is processed. It is important to state that the payment is backdated from the first day it is sought.

To improve the speed of the appeals process I published a draft set of new appeals regulations, including regulations setting maximum time limits for responses from the Department. I did this earlier this year. The chief appeals officer is reviewing the feedback from the consultation. I expect to give effect to the new regulations shortly. The benefit of this is that the time taken to process appeals should be significantly improved.

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