Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 7: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the processing time it takes for each individual social welfare office to deal with a claim in respect of jobseeker's allowance; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23319/09]

Dinny McGinley (Donegal South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 10: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the number of persons on a national, county and local social welfare office basis waiting in respect of their application for jobseeker's benefit to be processed; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23334/09]

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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Question 13: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the processing time it takes for each individual social welfare office to deal with a claim in respect of jobseeker's benefit; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23325/09]

Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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Question 16: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the number of persons on a national, county and local social welfare office basis waiting for their application in respect of jobseeker's allowance to be processed; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23338/09]

Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 27: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the average processing time it takes for a claim in respect of jobseeker's benefit to be dealt with; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23321/09]

Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Question 32: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the average processing time it takes for a claim for jobseeker's allowance to be dealt with; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23304/09]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 7, 10, 13, 16, 27 and 32 together.

The live register has increased from 207,100 in May 2008 to 396,871 at the end of May 2009, an unprecedented increase of more than 96%. I assure the House that staff in the Department are working extremely hard to process claims as expeditiously as is possible, having regard to the conditions of the schemes.

The average processing time for claims decided in May was 3.68 weeks for jobseeker's benefit and 6.35 weeks for jobseeker's allowance. This is the average nationally and there are fluctuations between offices. The length of time it takes to process claims varies depending on the complexity of the claim, the availability of the necessary documentation from the applicant or his or her employer and, in the case of jobseeker's allowance, the need to carry out additional inquires, including assessment of means and whether the claimant satisfies the habitual residence condition. Furthermore, processing times can vary from office to office for a number of reasons, including increased claim load, the number of staff vacancies, the duration of such vacancies and the turnover of staff in the office which impacts on the overall level of experience in the office.

At the end of May, a total 70,363 claims were awaiting a decision, of which 26,437 were jobseeker's benefit claims and 43,926 jobseeker's allowance claims. This compares to a total of 71,885 awaiting a decision at the end of April. I am making available tabular statements showing the number of claims awaiting a decision at the end of May and the average processing time for claims decided in May for each local and branch office. Local offices do not operate strictly within county boundaries and customers can be served by a local office outside their county boundary where the location of the office is more convenient to them. Consequently, statistics of number of claims awaiting a decision on a county basis are not available.

As I outlined, as a result of staffing reviews in 2008 and again in recent months, some 300 extra staff have been assigned to local offices, new central support units and the Department's inspectorate since May 2008. This includes 90 temporary staff who have been appointed to local offices around the country pending the assignment of permanent staff. Arrangements are also in train to allocate a further 24 inspector posts.

At the same time, the Department has been examining all aspects of the work associated with the processing of claims and streamlining them wherever possible without compromising our scheme controls. There has been a significant increase in productivity in local offices during 2009, with almost 251,500 claims for local office schemes decided from January to May 2009 as compared to 146,500 in the same period in 2008.

As many local offices are very close to capacity as regards accommodating further staff, we have established from 25 May five central decision units in Dublin, Sligo, Finglas, Carrick-on-Shannon and, most recently, Roscommon. A further central support unit is to be established in Tallaght early next month.

While acknowledging that some claims are more complicated than others and will, therefore, take longer than the average time to decide, processing times in some areas are still too long. I assure Deputies we are doing our best to reduce them. I fully appreciate that becoming unemployed is a very difficult time in a person's life and those who become unemployed need to secure access to financial and other supports as quickly as possible.

Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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While we all know what is involved in processing a claim, these factors do not explain the difference in processing times. Irrespective of whether average processing times are 19 weeks in one area or two weeks in another area, departmental staff must ask claimants the same questions. Variations in claimants' circumstances do not account for the delays in processing claims.

When we last raised this issue in the House, the five offices with the longest processing times were Boyle, Edenderry, Bandon, Navan and Tuam. What steps have been taken in these specific local offices to address the long waiting times for claimants? The shortest processing time in the five offices was 13 weeks, while the longest was 19 weeks.

Responding to a question by Deputy Shortall, the Minister referred to trying to get in line with targets. What are the Department's targets? Is the shortest processing time of two weeks the target for the whole country? Given that this timeframe is feasible in one office, could a target of two weeks not be achieved in all offices?

The Minister indicated that if community welfare officers were to be brought under her Department, it would be all sweetness and light - that expression has stuck since the Ceann Comhairle used it earlier.

John O'Donoghue (Kerry South, Ceann Comhairle)
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I am pleased I made an impression on someone.

Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Difficulties will persist even if the community welfare service comes within the remit of the Department because the service is no longer able to provide the support it did one year ago on account of the increasing number of claimants. What action will the Minister take to address this matter?

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The target for jobseeker's benefit is to process 90% of claims within three weeks. In May, 60% of claims were processed in that timeframe. The Deputy will note from the tables that processing times in many offices are significantly shorter than three weeks. In some cases, the average processing time is two weeks, one week or only a few days. The major problem is not in this area. The target for jobseeker's allowance is to process 90% of claims within six weeks. In May, 65% of claims were decided within that timeframe.

The figures the Deputy cited for certain offices are correct. She will note, however, that the offices in question are all branch offices. In an effort to speed up the processing of claims, applications from some of these branch offices have been transferred for processing in the five special units established recently. This means claims will no longer lie at the bottom of a pile in a local office. A further special unit will be established in Tallaght next month. The creation of a special unit in each region will speed up processing.

The unfortunate effect of the long processing times in some offices is that they skew the figures for the whole country. The Deputy asked the reason average processing times were much longer in some areas than in others. Some of the small offices with few staff have experienced a twofold or threefold increase in the number of claims, depending on local circumstances. In those areas where we determined that specific issues would arise, we ensured these issues would be addressed by the central units. I will deal with that matter in a moment.

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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The Minister made a number of comments on difficulties encountered in improving processing times and indicated the main problems arise in branch offices. While I accept that major problems are occurring in branch offices, they are not confined to these offices. A brief examination of the tables supplied shows that six local offices have processing times of ten weeks or more. What action is being taken to address these unacceptable delays?

The Minister stated the CPSU objected to her attempt to introduce a system to speed up processing in branch offices. She also indicated the union objected when the Department sought to extend to other offices same day processing for jobseeker's benefit which had been working well in some areas. It would be helpful if she spelt out precisely what were the problems in this regard.

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Clearly, the Department will examine staffing in local offices that are experiencing problems. I must be fair to offices throughout the country. The Deputy asked about offices with the longest processing times. The Secretary General has also been examining management issues and so forth because these must be considered from an operations perspective, with a view to ensuring people are looked after.

On the new initiatives, Dundalk introduced an appointment system which has worked well. Initially there were some objections from the unions, but then they came on board. That initiative is hugely successful and is being rolled out to 16 different offices. People go in and are given an appointment time and hatch number and told what documentation they need. The result is no queues and the protection of the dignity of applicants. It also ensures staff can build in lunch and break periods. This works very well.

The other initiatives mentioned could work very well in the interest of both the staff and the public. That is the reason I hope the CPSU will agree to them.

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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The Minister suggested the CPSU was blocking both initiatives.

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Suffice to say, the agreement with the branch officers goes back to April 2008, but agreement has not been reached with the CPSU on the issue because it says it is outsourcing.

Seymour Crawford (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I appreciate the extraordinary pressure the system is under due to the doubling of the number of unemployed. I want to focus on the issue of jobseekers, particularly those who were previously self-employed. There is a major problem in their regard. There seems to be a degree of enthusiasm among the inspectorate to insist on all sorts of documentation of back income etc. I understood from a meeting on 13 May that this was being reconsidered and that the current income situation of these people would be the issue. However, I have not found that happening in the system. I urge the Minister to take another look at the situation. Perhaps that would help speed up payments.

I mentioned a particular case previously and without going into too much detail I will repeat it. It concerns a person's half-built house being taken into account. It was valued at €400,000 and this sum was taken into account and used as a basis to refuse a jobseeker's payment. This is not on and I urge the Minister to reconsider this type of appraisal. Perhaps that would then speed up a resolution of the situation.

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Deputy Crawford raised that issue with me and I am aware there are some issues with regard to the capital valuation being placed on properties. There have been significant changes and improvements throughout the country with regard to benefits for the self-employed. It has not been brought to my attention that there is significant difficulty in any individual office, but if there are, particularly in Monaghan, we will check them out. The procedure has been changed so that inspectors do not look at the projected income based on last year's income in the way they used to.

Did the Deputy ask another question?

Seymour Crawford (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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It was only yesterday that I was advised of this issue by the Dundalk office.

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I wanted to mention the value of the central units in making decisions. When, for example, the SR Technics redundancies came on stream, all of those, instead of going to local offices, went to the Finglas central unit and the decisions were made there. The same happened in the case of Dell and the applications from there went immediately to Sligo. These central offices were able to deal with bulk applications efficiently, which freed up the local offices.

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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In response to the priority question, the Minister indicated the CPSU was blocking progress on the processing of claims on two different fronts. She seems to have backtracked on that in the response she has just given.

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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No, I gave a separate example.

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Is there an industrial relations issue or not? Will the Minister clarify the issue with regard to the appointment system, to dealing with long delays in branch offices and to processing being done by departmental staff? She indicated earlier the CPSU was at fault on those fronts.

Has the Minister a figure for the current number of staff vacancies? When will the central support office for Wexford be up and running? Does the Minister accept there is a need to look at procedures. Two complaints were brought to my attention recently with regard to a person who had applied for jobseeker's allowance. A social welfare officer called to the House without an appointment and then had to return the following week. In the second case, a means assessment was not carried out for somebody on jobseeker's benefit until the person's last week on that benefit, another delay. Does the Minister accept there is potential for tightening the procedures being used?

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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We recently streamlined procedures for people moving to jobseeker's allowance from jobseeker's benefit. We have also made an improvement in the IT system, which will generate automatic letters to people before they come to the end of jobseeker's benefit so that assessments can be done. We have also streamlined a process for people who have had a claim in the previous two years, so that if people get a job for a couple of weeks or go to training or FÁS, the process for dealing with that is better. Application forms are available on the website so that people can bring them in already completed. More straightforward procedures have also been introduced for identity checks and improvements have been made in the area of casual work. There is significant paperwork involved in casual work claims. We are constantly trying to improve the process and the more we do in this regard the better.

With regard to the Deputy's earlier comments on improvements generally, the two issues which have not been advanced are the agreement with the branch officers on them making decisions locally rather than having forms and applications going to the local office. This has been agreed with the branch offices, but has not yet been implemented. That is held up.

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Is it the CPSU that is holding that up?

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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That is what I understand, because it is outsourcing from the local office to the branch office. The second issue on which it has not been possible to make progress was the project that allowed decisions on jobseeker's benefit to be made on the day. That had to be stopped and there has been no progress on it.

Lest the Deputy is confused about what I said, what has progressed is that the appointment system-----

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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No, I asked about same day processing. What is the problem with that?

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Two issues have not progressed and one initiative started and stopped but has now progressed very successfully in 16 different offices. That is the appointment system and it has the full co-operation of the staff. Staff in our offices throughout the country are genuinely working flat out. This can be seen in their productivity. Some 200,000 claims cleared in one month is extraordinary productivity from staff. The more we can do to support them in their work, which will ultimately support applicants, is our main aim.

Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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I referred to this issue in a priority question and have raised it several times. I accept, as most people do, that staff are working flat out. However, the main concern is the customer, the person who has nothing to live on and is trying to survive. I have raised an issue with regard to people doing FÁS courses but have not received a satisfactory answer to my question. They sign off benefit, sign on with FÁS and then sign back on with the Department. That is a waste of staff time. If this issue was dealt with when it was first raised, it would have freed up time for staff. When will the Minister stop that process? Those signing on for FÁS courses get the same amount of money. Basically, all the money comes from the same Department, the Department of Finance. It makes no sense to continue with the same process. If this issue was tackled, it would immediately free up a significant amount of time for staff. It might not be enough time to deal with the problem, but it would be useful. Will we see action on that?

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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What has happened is that claims will be processed more smoothly, given the person made a claim in the previous two weeks. That issue has been streamlined. I think what the Deputy is saying is that although the money comes from two different Departments, it all comes from the Exchequer and that these people should not have to make repeated claims. That has not been changed. However, we have tried to streamline the process so that applicants can move seamlessly between the two.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 8: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the expected expenditure on mortgage and rent supplements in 2009; the degree to which this is deemed adequate to meet requirements; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23237/09]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Expenditure on rent and mortgage payments has increased significantly in recent years and there are currently over 88,000 recipients of rent supplement and 12,900 recipients of mortgage interest supplement.

Increased expenditure on these payments is driven not only by rises in the live register but also by an increase in recipients on other schemes such as one-parent family payment and illness related payments. The estimated number of recipients for both schemes in 2009 was reviewed during preparation of the supplementary budget. As a result of this analysis, the provision for the rent supplement was increased to €490.4 million, which is €50.7 million more than the 2008 outturn on this scheme. The allocation for the mortgage interest supplement was also increased, to €40.1m, or €12.5m more than the outturn for 2008. Expenditure on both schemes is being closely monitored on a monthly basis, taking into account trends in recipient numbers, average monthly payments and savings arising from the supplementary budget measures.

As Deputies will be aware, rent supplements are subject to a limit on the amount of rent that a recipient may incur. Setting or retaining maximum rent limits at higher levels than are justified by the open market can have a distorting effect on the rental market, leading to a more general rise in rent levels and in landlord income. This in turn may worsen the affordability of rental accommodation unnecessarily, with a particularly negative impact for those tenants on lower incomes.

The recent supplementary budget provided for decreases in both the maximum rent payable in respect of new tenancies and in rent supplement payments to existing tenants. These changes were informed by data from the Private Residential Tenancies Board, the CSO and a leading property rental website. It is vital that taxpayers money is not paying inflated rents to private landlords when rental prices in general have dropped considerably.

Overall, I can assure Deputies that the Government is conscious of the needs of the increasing number of people who are coming to rely on State assistance with their rent and mortgage interest payments. We have substantially increased provision for these schemes, while also taking steps to ensure that we are not paying landlords excessive rents.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Might it be a better policy for the Minister to pursue the possibility of entering into negotiations with her colleague, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy John Gormley, with a view to coming to some arrangement whereby some of the locked-up houses throughout the country at the present time be made available to local authorities to alleviate some of the burden, some €500 million per annum, for rent support?

It seems extraordinary that at a time when €500 million is being spent on rent support, there are some 80,000 houses locked up, incomplete or vacant in the private sector. At the same time, the general economic downturn is affecting people to a far greater extent than it would at any other time. Could the Minister tell us to what extent the funds made available in the supplementary budget have been eroded to date?

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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There is very close co-operation between my Department and the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. The Deputy is correct. It is very frustrating to see houses boarded up when people are in need of housing and are in rented accommodation. We are working closely with the Department to ensure more people are transferred onto the RAS scheme. In the last few years, 20,000 people have been transferred onto the scheme and it is working quite successfully. We are constantly trying to increase the numbers in the scheme.

Regarding the amount of money currently being spent, I do not have the specific figure but we made provision for additional claims due to the increase in the live register. I understand it is some €29 million, given the changes in the supplementary budget. Where there will be pressure is on the mortgage interest supplement, rather than the rent supplement. We envisage that there will be an overrun on that scheme, but that we will be able to accommodate it within the overall Estimate in the overall budget for the Department this year.

Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Regarding mortgage interest supplement, I am concerned about whether it is efficient. However, I have a greater concern, namely, the protocol with the bankers' federation and the Minister's claim that only nine houses were repossessed in the first quarter of this year. I am concerned that the Minister is believing the bankers. The people referred to did not disappear. They sold their houses so they would not been seen to have had them repossessed or else had some way of meeting their settlement. The banks did not take such people as far as the High Court and then say, "You are all right. You can stay there". They still lost their houses, but lost them in a different way.

I am still not satisfied that mortgage interest supplement is being equitably distributed in terms of how it is decided. People are still being told they should not have entered into a contract to buy a house because they could not afford it. They could afford it at the time, but now the price of the house seems disproportionate, whereas two or three years ago it did not. The issue needs to be addressed.

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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We are now several months into a mortgage crisis and the Minister has not yet reformed the mortgage interest supplement scheme. She has promised to reform it, such as the ridiculous rule where if one person is working more than 29 hours, they receive no help whatsoever, irrespective of their circumstances. When will the Minister announce a reform of the that scheme?

Regarding people moving from rent supplement to RAS, why is there an 18 month delay in doing that? Why must they be renting privately for 18 months before they can avail of RAS?

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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It is important that there should be a waiting time for people who are in rented accommodation before they get what is a priority scheme, that is, RAS.

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Why is it a priority?

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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There are people on housing waiting lists, as the Deputy knows far better than I do, who are in overcrowded accommodation at home but are not in rented accommodation and need to take their place in receiving social housing and the type of housing available for them.

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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They would be eligible for private accommodation.

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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A waiting time is important.

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Why?

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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It is important because I believe it is. The changes in the supplementary budget are also important, such as the provision that people should have been in rented accommodation for six months or have a full assessment, rather than setting up new households with a view to getting rent supplement.

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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It does not make any sense.

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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It makes total sense because these are important controls.

Deputy Durkan asked about the amount spent. There are currently 88,000 people on rent supplement and 12,720 on mortgage interest supplement. Deputy Enright mentioned repossessions. She is correct regarding the repossession orders, but in some cases they are waiting for a lean on the home or building. I hope the protocol will ensure things will not reach that stage. We will now be working with sub-prime lenders, who are main culprits, and we will try to ensure they will not take steps towards repossessions. More and more people are working with MABS.

Regarding reform to the mortgage interest supplement, we are currently conducting a review to examine the question Deputy Enright raised, namely, the consistency of approach around the country, and any information on that-----

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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That review is going on forever.

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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-----will guide our future thinking on the issue.