Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)

Every appeal is different and every scheme is different. Given the complexity of some of the schemes, getting to a ten-week turnaround time would be good for some of the schemes. I will revert to the Deputy, as I do not have the detail about supplementary welfare appeals.

Appeals will also depend on the detail provided. It is not always easy to get the level of detail we need to do an appeal. At the end of quarter 3, the average processing time for all social welfare appeals was 21.2 weeks. I want to get that down. That is why we have made changes, such as assigning the 20 extra people. We have an appeals modernisation project. That was completed in quarter 1 2025, which brings in the online side of things and enhances the experience.

I continue to work with the chief appeals officer, who has put in huge effort, along with the appeals office generally, to try to get these backlogs reduced. Up to the end of quarter 3, we had 29,751 appeals registered. We have reduced the processing times for those appeals. While the volume continues to grow, I want to focus on reducing the processing times as much as we can.

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