Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 35: To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number of extra staff redeployed from other Departments to her Department in each of the past three years to date in 2011 with particular reference to the need to clear a backlog under various headings; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [15319/11]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Since May 2008, some 825 posts have been assigned to the Department of Social Protection to fill critical staff vacancies and additional posts approved to deal with the significant increase in claims for the schemes operated by the Department. The assignment details on a yearly basis are set out in the following table. The majority of these posts have been sourced through the lateral transfer and redeployment of staff from within the Department and from other Departments. Staffing needs are kept under constant review to ensure the best use is made of all available resources. Processing times vary across schemes because of both the volume of applications and the differing qualification criteria. For example, means assessments are required for all of the social assistance schemes; medical examinations are required for some of the illness-related schemes and customers must also satisfy the habitual residence conditions. In the case of the insurance-based schemes, it may be necessary to ascertain details of foreign insurance records.

One of the main impacts on current service delivery has been the increase in the live register. In this context, the Department has introduced a range of process improvement initiatives regarding claims for jobseeker's allowance and jobseeker's benefit. One of the most significant initiatives, aimed at reducing queuing times and waiting times, involves the customer attending the local office by appointment at which time the claim is taken and decided.

Process improvements have resulted in a significant reduction in the number and proportion of all claims awaiting a decision. For example, there were 33,591 jobseeker claims awaiting a decision on 4 June 2011, equating to 7% of the total claim-load. This compares favourably to 5 June 2010 when 46,879 claims or 9% of claim-load awaiting decision and 74,553 claims or 16% awaiting decision in June 2009.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House.

My Department is committed to delivering the best possible service to its customers. All scheme areas in the Department are subject to continuous business process improvement supported by modern technology, the potential of which is continuously harnessed and applied to maximum effect. The plans to integrate the community welfare service from the Health Service Executive into my Department together with the employment and other services of FÁS, and functions transferred from other Departments represent significant milestones in business transformation and will provide the basis for a new model of service delivery in my Department. This will ensure that our services and resources are organised to deliver effective, more timely, case management based, income and employment support services to our customer base. The following table details the number of posts per year assigned to the Department of Social Protection.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Notwithstanding the strides made by the Minister in the short time she has been in office and given the magnitude of the problem which was unfolding when she began in office, is it an opportune time to seek further redeployments to ensure a dramatic reduction in waiting times and backlogs under a number of headings? At the same time we could reduce the kind of duplication taking place that is laborious, time consuming and non-productive. It entails officials poring over the same kind of documents, with some cases on four or five occasions.

Will the Minister confirm to the House that a waiting time of one year is too long, particularly in examples like carer's allowance? Some of those cases go back 18 months. I accept the Minister is only in office a very short time and I congratulate her for the work she has done. The magnitude of the problem unfolding now is such that unless something is done about it in the very near future, the whole system will break down.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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There are a number of different elements to reducing the overall waiting times for people making applications for benefits and schemes, as well as for allowances. The Deputy referred to duplication and the laborious processes taking time and causing delays. One of the overall changes that the Department is undergoing currently, as the Deputy is aware, is that community welfare officers are joining the Department and will become civil servants. They will be integrated into the Department. At the same time, the employment services side of FÁS will also come into the Department, and FÁS employees who join the Department will also become civil servants.

This will allow us to build a new national employment and entitlement service, which will move us towards the famous one-stop-shop. Instead of people having to repeat applications, they should be able to get a more integrated service at one point. As Deputies may be aware, people may also go to their local office and process a variety of claims at the local office point, which in turn will reduce the need people have had in the past to go to a community welfare officer when waiting for a claim to be processed.

The second element will be improving forms and the information technology applications. There is a great deal of work ongoing in the Department in this respect. A card system will be rolled out later this year with photo identification, an important improvement in the Department's procedures.

The Deputy also mentioned carers. There is currently an examination in the Department that is reviewing existing processes and procedures for carer's allowance. The Deputy and I have referred to claims based on medical evidence, and it is critical that when an application is made, all the information required should be made available to the Department to the highest possible level and standard. Faster and clearer decisions will reduce the number of appeals and allow the appeal process to be much faster.

The Deputy is correct in stating that a waiting time of one year is very long. I hope that with the reforms I speak about, it will not happen. The Department has faced an enormous increase in the numbers of claims across all fronts and it has been very taxing on the staff, which has tried to respond as quickly as possible to the significant extra demands being put on social welfare as a consequence of the economic collapse.