Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)
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Question 127: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the steps she is taking to deal with the excessive waiting times for PRSI refunds. [8916/10]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The Department endeavours to process applications for refunds of PRSI as efficiently as possible. However, the volume of applications for refunds of PRSI has increased dramatically in recent years. For example in 2009 some 23,400 applications were received compared to 14,000 in 2008 and 9,000 in 2007. The increased volume of applications has inevitably given rise to a delay in processing refund applications.

In order to speed up the processing of refund applications the processes and procedures in the section have been reviewed and appropriate changes implemented along with new technical supports. In order to further speed up the processing the Department is examining ways of making better use of modern technology, e.g. payment of refunds by electronic fund transfer, online applications, enhancement of the current calculation functionality, etc. Furthermore, in December 2009, an additional five staff were assigned to the area on a temporary basis to help clear the number of applications on hand.

The additional staff, more streamlined processes and procedures and technical supports have already shown positive results. In January 2010 refunds were processed for 2,275 applicants compared with an average of about 1,000 per month in 2009. With the implementation of further process improvements and technical supports I am confident that further improvements will be made in the processing of applications for refunds.