Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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3. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if the serious delays in processing claims which require medical assessment and the consequent delays in the appeals process are directly related to the high turnover of medical assessors in her Department; her views on whether the lay-out of medical assessment forms which general practitioners and consultants must complete in respect of most such applications often encourage inadequate descriptive content to enable medical assessors to make an accurate decision and that this fuels further delays; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43978/13]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The Department is committed to ensuring claims and appeals are processed as expeditiously as possible. There are 20 medical assessors, including the chief medical adviser and the deputy chief medical adviser, employed by the Department. Owing to the retirement of several medical assessors in recent years, several vacancies have arisen. In response, the Department, in conjunction with the Public Appointments Service, ran a competition in 2012 to recruit replacement and additional medical assessors. Four medical assessors appointed from that competition are employed, with a further medical assessor due to commence work this month.

The Department has continued to liaise with the Public Appointsment Service with a view to filling these critical vacancies. A further competition was advertised on 13 September inviting suitably qualified candidates to apply for the position of medical assessor in the Department. Interviews are due to take place shortly. This competition is one of several options the Department is exploring to increase its capacity to carry out medical assessments and reviews of its illness-disability-caring schemes, thus enabling it to deliver a quality service to its customers.

The Department's disability and illness-related schemes require a high level of medical evidence which must be assessed by the medical assessors and this, together with other qualifying criteria such as means-testing for disability allowance and carer's allowance and PRSI contributions for invalidity pension, can affect the processing times of claims. There has also been an increase in the volume of customer claims under particular schemes. Despite this, there have been significant improvements from 2012 in the waiting times for assessment by the medical assessors across all the illness related schemes. The processing backlogs have been eliminated across all of the illness related schemes, except for disability allowance, which is being cleared. Claims, appeals and urgent cases - medical-social reasons - are dealt with on a priority basis as a result of the updated IT systems we have put in place.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House

The Department continually strives to standardise and simplify its application forms. However, the design and lay-out of application forms must also have regard to the particular requirements of individual schemes. Application forms are reviewed on a regular basis, including those parts that relate to the provision of medical evidence. The design of the medical sections of application forms is undertaken in consultation with the Department's chief medical adviser and deputy chief medical adviser.

Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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I accept some progress has been made in reducing waiting times for appeals. However, the time taken in dealing with them still remains unacceptably long. What is astonishing is the number of appeals, some 50%, that are successful when they are eventually heard. One has to ask why they were disallowed in the first place. This appears to be a question of administrative resources. Last year there were 27 medical assessors, with nine leaving and three being replaced. This year there will be 21 medical assessors - four have left and four are to be replaced. The complement is five short. I would have thought people would be queuing up to get on this panel? If they are not, why is that the case?

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Since the economy collapsed in 2009, there has been an explosion in the number of applications for social welfare payments and, as a consequence, an explosion in the number of appeals. In 2009 the average number of appeals received was 15,000. By 2012, it was 35,000.

I am thankful that the Deputy has acknowledged the heavy investment we made and work that has been done in upgrading the IT and clearing all the backlogs other than disability, which we are clearing now. I inherited that situation. Some 17,800 appeals were finalised in 2009 but the equivalent figure in 2012 was 32,600 due to the explosion in volume across all the schemes. We have been seeking to improve the application process and the speed at which deciding officers make their decisions and improve decision-making.

Deputy Catherine Murphy asked why people are rejected at the initial stage. Sometimes, as the Deputy knows, it is due to a lack of clear medical evidence that is sufficient for the purpose of the initial application, and that is provided at the appeal stage. We have been trying to use organisations such as Citizens' Information centres to get people to improve the quality of their applications and the certification of their medical cases for access to a particular scheme.

Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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Some of the appeals are self-generated or Department-generated. The domiciliary care allowance reviews and reviews of people on invalidity payments would have produced a very large number of appeals when they were turned down. They are not all strictly new claimants. Some applicants who have experienced very long delays and been turned down have sent exactly the same medical information on appeal and been successful. I have helped them compile the information. I do not disagree with the Minister and I wonder why it has taken so long and why the application form has not been upgraded. I do not know if the Minister consults with the medical profession about what is required of them. It comes back as a problem, but it is not a problem of the individual claimants. This would be a very cost-efficient way of dealing with the issue rather than wasting huge amounts of administrative time when people are successful on appeal. Most importantly, it causes incredible stress for people who are obliged to wait ridiculous lengths of time for something they eventually get and it does not save the State a penny but costs money in administrative time.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The Department of Social Protection has been taking over an increasing number of schemes from the HSE. Many of those files, including DCA files, had review dates mandated on them when they arrived in my Department. After I became Minister I changed the review notification for the new DCA awards, but we have inherited mandated instructions on files from the Department of Health. We have been under pressure to do even more reviews of those from external interlocutors and reviewers. I put in place a revised structure for DCA in conjunction with intensive consultations with parents' organisations. If the Deputy is aware of such cases she will know people were very satisfied with the outcome.

I cannot explain why we are unsuccessful in getting more medical assessors. The people involved need occupational medical experience and qualifications and we have found it extremely difficult to get people to respond to the Public Appointments Service's recruitment drives.