John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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Question 341: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the point at which a delay in deciding an appeal to a designated officer for appeals regarding social welfare allowance rent supplement application becomes an unreasonable delay; and the period of time which must elapse before the delay becomes an unreasonable delay in his estimation. [4050/06]

John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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Question 342: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the statistics for each Health Service Executive area on the length of delays in deciding appeals to designated officers for appeals relating to applications for the social welfare allowance rent supplement that have been refused by superintendent community welfare officers. [4051/06]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to takes Questions Nos. 341 and 342 together.

The supplementary welfare allowance scheme, SWA, is administered on my behalf by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive, HSE. Neither I nor my Department has any function in relation to decisions on individual claims or in the role of the executive's appeals process.

Where a person is dissatisfied with the outcome of an application for SWA he or she may appeal against the decision to the appeals officer in the relevant HSE area and if necessary then to the chief appeals officer of the social welfare appeals office.

The timescale for completing an appeal from the date of receipt to the communication of a determination is dependent, among other things, on the availability of the required information, such as details of the applicant's income, bank statements, information from landlords etc. The person who originally made the decision may be asked to review the case in the light of any additional information supplied in relation to the appeal.

The HSE has advised that the total number of SWA appeals for 2005 was 6,305. It has further advised that, in general, the period for the completion of the SWA appeals process in the HSE is 21 to 28 days, however, cases of greater complexity require a longer period. The HSE was unable to provide statistics for each Health Service Executive area on the length of delays in deciding appeals.

John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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Question 343: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the way in which the superintendent community welfare officer decided that a person (details supplied) had not established a need to vacate local authority accommodation in view of the fact that the person had supplied letters from their doctor and the Garda Síochána to support their application for the social welfare allowance rent supplement. [4052/06]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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The supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which includes rent supplement, is administered on my behalf by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive. Neither I nor my Department has any function in relation to decisions on individual claims.

Article 9(2)(d) of SI 382 of 1995 provides that a rent supplement shall not be payable in circumstances where a person has vacated accommodation provided by a housing authority unless the Health Service Executive is satisfied that he or she had a good cause for doing so.

The Dublin-mid-Leinster area of the executive has advised that it has rejected an application for rent supplement from the person concerned as in its opinion the person had not established good cause for leaving her local authority accommodation. In coming to its decision the HSE took account of the letters from the Garda and her doctor which the person had submitted in support of her claim. The person concerned has appealed the decision to the designated appeals officer in the Health Service Executive. A decision on the matter is expected shortly.