Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move recommendation No. 4:

In page 4, between lines 7 and 8, to insert the following:
“Amendment of Social Welfare (Consolidation) Act 2005
3. The Social Welfare (Consolidation) Act 2005 is amended by inserting the following after subsection (4) of section 311:
“(5)(a) An Appeals Officer shall decide an appeal within a prescribed time of 60 working days from the date of receipt of the appeal.
(b) Where notice of a decision under section 311 is not given to the appellant who made the appeal concerned before the expiration of the period specified in section 311(5)(a), a decision upholding the appeal shall be deemed to have been made upon such expiration.
(c) An Appeals Officer may apply to the Chief Appeals Officer for an extension of time to consider the appeal in exceptional circumstances but the Appeals Officer must demonstrate the reasons for the delay and the appellant shall be informed of the reasons for the delay in writing.”.”.

The Minister of State will be acutely aware, both in his role as Deputy and more recently as a Minister of State, that the question of appeals has been a main area of controversy, in particular for public representatives who have been struggling with an extremely bureaucratic system for some time. This is an old chestnut in one sense, but in the context of the Government’s reforming zeal in recent years I would have thought there would have been more success in the area. I have spoken to colleagues in the House informally about the various areas of the social welfare system that are creaking under the weight of the appeals system. There must be some positivity about it. I hope the Minister of State will give some indication of what efforts are being made within the Department to address delays in appeals, in particular for invalidity benefit and carer’s allowance, which appear to be among the more long-running sores, if I could put it that way, that are experienced by public representatives at all levels throughout the country. The reason we tabled the recommendation was to try to bring order to the appeals system. That is why we asked that an appeals officer would decide an appeal within a prescribed time of 60 working days from the date of receipt of the appeal. I do think that is too short a time. It is two calendar months.
We also ask that an appeals officer may apply to the chief appeals officer for an extension of time to consider the appeal in exceptional circumstances. We are introducing some flexibility into the recommendation. An appeals officer would have to demonstrate the reasons for the delay and the appellant shall be informed of the reasons for the delay in writing. The last part of the amendment is the most controversial. It is a bit like when one is standing on a train platform waiting for a train or waiting at a bus stop for a bus. I accept the situation has improved with Bus Éireann and Iarnród Éireann in that regard, but there was a time not that long ago when one could be standing at a bus stop or waiting for a train to come and not be told the reasons for the delay. Interestingly, it still happens in airports, in spite of all the modern technology available. Time and again, one gets airlines that do not inform the public of what is happening.
The biggest single issue that arises is not so much the inconvenience of the delay but it is the fact that there is no communication. Nobody has any idea of what is going on. In this day and age it is not the function of either county councillors, Senators or Deputies - certainly not a Minister - to have to be the person who is communicating back to a constituent the reasons they believe there is a delay because they got a response from the relevant civil servant in the section to say they are really sorry but there will not be progress for at least two months or three months or the appeals officer is out sick, or the case is with the appeals officer and the case file is overloaded and the person is saying off the record that it will take longer than the Government has specified. Public representatives have heard all of those reasons. Irrespective of the other aspects of the recommendation, communication is vital. Surely a system could be put in place for communication with clients to let them know the reason for delays. It could be nothing more than a simple letter to say the delay is due to A, B or C.
Having done that, there is a need to address a long-running problem, which goes back to the core of the recommendation. I appreciate the Minister of State inherited the problem and it is not necessarily a direct result of the Government’s actions but it is long past time to deal with the matter, in particular in light of those who increasingly receive social welfare benefits, especially those in vulnerable areas. While I do not wish to categorise those on social welfare, it could be a matter of economic life or death that appeals for invalidity benefit or carer’s allowance are addressed as quickly, efficiently and expeditiously as possible.