Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)
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Question 50: To ask the Minister for Social Protection his plans to recruit and divert more appeals officers to the Social Welfare Appeals Office to deal with the backlog of social welfare appeals [40035/10]

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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There has been a significant increase in the number of appeals received by the social welfare appeals office in recent years, largely as a result of increased unemployment during the economic downturn. The number of appeals received by the office in 2009 increased by 46% compared to 2008, which, in turn, was 27% greater than the numbers received in 2007. In response, my Department assigned three additional permanent appeals officers in January 2009.

The Department has also pursued other options to deal with the increasing inflow of appeals including operational and process changes. These have included additional staff who have been assigned to the administration area of the office; more emphasis is now being placed on dealing with appeals on a summary basis so as to increase productivity; a project to improve the business processes in the office was undertaken which has resulted in a number of improvements being implemented; and significant enhancements have been made to the office's IT and phone systems.

The social welfare appeals system is quasi-judicial in nature and the determinations made by appeals officers are governed by relevant social welfare legislation and by case law. It takes considerable time for newly appointed officers to become fully proficient in the full range of the Department's schemes and legislation. Accordingly, as an exceptional measure, it was decided to re-employ, on a temporary contract basis, a number of retired officers. Eight retired appeals officers, working on a part-time basis, have been employed in my Department since June 2010. It was expected that the provision of experienced staff resources would yield an immediate dividend in terms of making inroads into the number of appeals on hand. This has proven to be the case with 3,000 cases having being finalised by them in the period June to the end of September. It is expected that a further 3,000 cases will be finalised before the end of the year. It is intended that the retired officers will be retained until the end of 2011 if the number of appeals on hands warrants this.

The Department is reviewing the situation on an ongoing basis and will seek to ensure that adequate resources are provided to the appeals office, having regard to the current moratorium on recruitment and promotions.

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Does the Minister agree the appeals system is a shambles? Every Member is only too well aware of the difficulties. For example, the Leas-Cheann Comhairle recently drew attention to this problem. The typical waiting time for an appeal is in excess of nine months. Oral hearings that were first requested in August 2009 have not yet been heard. That is how bad it is. The Minister referred to the additional staff he has provided. Does he accept the information I received in reply to a recent parliamentary question, which stated the capacity of the appeals office is to handle 29,000 appeals in the current year? However, there is demand for 50,000 appeals. How does he intend to bridge that gap? Not only are the delays costing the State and claimants money, waiting times will worsen unless the Department meets demand. What action does the Minister intend to take?

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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I have outlined considerable actions that have been taken and the results can be seen. Up to the end of September 2009, 12,873 appeals were heard while the figure up to the end of September 2010 increased to 20,171. The challenge we face is that up to 2007 the average number of appeals per annum was 15,000 but that has jumped-----

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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The Minister is not meeting current demand.

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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-----and it is expected that upwards of 33,000 appeals will be received this year. The number of appeals, therefore, has more than doubled. We are taking many steps to streamline the process and to make sure, for example, where further information is provided that the case does not go through the appeals process and is referred back to the Department where the decision can be revised. These steps are having the desired effect.

Furthermore, as I pointed out in my answer, some of the steps we took did not happen until mid-year, such as bringing back retired appeals officers, so I hope we can build up to a situation where we at least meet the increased demand. Our next challenge is to get ahead of ourselves and reduce the existing lists. I see this happening in a multifaceted way; we must look at why so many people make appeals in the first place.

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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The Minister is not accepting the facts of the situation and the maths involved. He already said the capacity of the appeals office is 29,000 but the demand is for 50,000 appeals in a year.

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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No, it is not.

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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According to replies to parliamentary questions, it is. The Minister is not doing enough and the waiting times will get longer.

The other point I ask him to accept is that given 40% of those appeals fail, and that many of those whose appeals do not succeed are entitled to supplementary welfare allowance, every month there is a delay in hearing appeals that costs the taxpayer €600,000. What is the Minister doing to put in place a modern public service in the appeals office that will deal with appeals in a timely fashion and why is he not attaching more urgency to this given the huge costs involved to the taxpayer, costs that could be avoided?

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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I attach a huge degree of urgency to this. The Deputy is wrong on a number of points, she is adding the number of appeals that will come in this year and the full backlog but there will always be some appeals on hand and because it takes time to deal with appeals, they will never reach zero. The Deputy has added the number of appeals on hand and the expected number.

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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That is the demand this year and the Minister is not meeting it.

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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There will always be carry over of appeals into the following year, which the Deputy totally ignores in her mathematics. It takes time to deal with appeals because this is a quasi-judicial situation. I outlined the time taken in the answer to the priority question; it is needed because when an appeal is made, it is examined, if there is new information it is sent back for an opportunity for the deciding officer to change the decision, then it comes back and an appeals officer looks at it. In some cases, the appeal then goes to an oral hearing. There will never be a situation where zero time is taken for an appeal, there will always be appeals under way, that has always been the way. The Deputy's mathematics ignore that.

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Is nine months acceptable?

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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The other thing wrong with the Deputy's mathematics is that supplementary welfare is paid but if the appeal is awarded, the money paid in supplementary welfare is taken into account.

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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What if it is not awarded?

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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In many cases supplementary welfare is not paid. Supplementary welfare is only paid where the community welfare officer, having done his own means test, believes there is a prima facie case for the payment of supplementary welfare.

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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This costs €600,000 a month.

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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Therefore, the figure the Deputy gave for the cost of supplementary welfare is wrong.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Would the Minister not admit there has been a dramatic increase in the number of appeals because of a dramatic increase in the number of refusals for various payments? Will he confirm the number of cases on appeal is the highest ever and that a scoping section in the Department provides at least a year in advance to deal with the level of queries under a particular category and that it is being done now to provide for next year?

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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The first thing I paid attention to when I entered the Department was the length of the appeals process. As a constituency politician, I am more than aware of the problem. In fairness to the appeals office, which is independent, it has taken a huge number of steps to deal with the large increase in the number of applications.

It is obvious that many decisions are now being revised before they go through a full appeal because the applicants are giving information on appeal that they are not giving in the initial application. It is interesting to look at the statistics I gave this afternoon that show we must look at ways to encourage people to give the information at the first stage that obviates the necessity for an appeal because many successful appeals are based on further information being provide the second time around. I should look at Deputy Durkan's point, that there should be a way to engineer a situation where people do not feel the need to appeal.