Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 400: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs when a person (details supplied) in County Mayo will be approved and awarded invalidity pension based on the new medical evidence submitted. [16858/07]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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The person concerned applied for an invalidity pension on 2 March 2007. Prior to this he was in receipt of Illness Benefit with effect from 23 November 2005. A medical examination was carried out on the 10th May 2007 following which the person concerned was found to be not permanently incapable of work.

The application for Invalidity Pension was refused on 23rd May, 2007. The person concerned was notified of the decision and given a right of review and appeal. Further medical evidence was submitted on the 7th June, 2007 and is being reviewed by a Medical Assessor of my Department. The person concerned will be notified of the outcome of the review as soon as possible.

Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)
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Question 401: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if his attention has been drawn to the fact that there is a two to three month delay in issuing disability payments; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16860/07]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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Disability Allowance (DA) is a weekly Allowance paid to people with a specified disability who are aged over 16 and under 66. Processing of claims for Disability Allowance necessitates a medical examination of the claimant in some instances, and also investigation of the claimant's means by a Social Welfare Inspector, which may require a visit to the claimant's home. These processes can add time to the overall claim adjudication process.

There has been a continuous upward trend in recent years in the numbers of Disability Allowance claims — at the end of 2005 there were 79,253 recipients of DA, this had increased to 83,697 at the end of 2006, and at this point there are 85,905 people in receipt of the allowance. The Department received 17,581 new applications in 2006, and to date in 2007 some 8,986 claims have been received.

The average time to decide a claim is currently just under 17 weeks. While some of this time can be attributed to the factors mentioned above, this timescale falls short of the Department's target processing time for this scheme, which aims for 70% of new claims to be decided within 9 weeks. Every effort is being made to improve claim processing times, including use of overtime. Additionally, a review of the resourcing requirements of the section is being undertaken to identify any further steps which may be necessary.