Seymour Crawford (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Question 204: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the length of time an application from a social welfare applicant will take to get clearance from the habitual residency section; if she will make additional staff available to ensure the applications are dealt with in a reasonable period; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [20450/09]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The requirement to be habitually resident in Ireland was introduced as a qualifying condition for certain social assistance schemes and child benefit with effect from 1 May 2004. It was introduced in the context of the Government's decision to open the Irish labour market to workers from the 10 new EU Member States, without the transitional limitations which were imposed at that time by most of the other Member States. The effect of the condition is that a person whose habitual residence is elsewhere would not normally be entitled to social welfare assistance or child benefit payments on arrival in Ireland.

Habitual residence condition (HRC) decisions for child benefit, disability allowance, carers allowance and pensions are now made in their respective headquarter offices. In addition, 90% of Jobseeker's Allowance habitual residence condition cases are straightforward and are decided in local offices at the point of claim. The average processing times for Jobseekers' claims is currently 6 weeks. The more complex habitual residence cases are sent to the central HRC unit for decision. As a result of the increase in the volume and complexity of claims currently being referred to the central unit, it can take to up to 5 months for a decision to be finalised in certain cases.

The Department has recently introduced a number of measures to address the delays and expedite the HRC decision-making process. Since the beginning of 2009, a further three staff have been assigned to the unit. In addition, a programme of devolving all decisions locally has commenced. Formal training for the first phase for staff involved commenced on 19th May 2009. The training of the remaining staff will be rolled out over the coming months. The localisation of the decision making functions when completed will result in speedier processing of claims.