Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 323: To ask the Minister for Social Protection the average length of time currently taken to process an appeal in respect of jobseeker's allowance, unemployment benefit, child benefit and widow's or widower's pension; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22096/10]

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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The statistics requested by the Deputy are given in the accompanying table. A number of initiatives are currently underway designed to enhance the capacity of the office to deal with the current caseload and inflows. In that regard, 2 additional Appeals Officers were assigned to the Office in 2009. A number of additional staff are being assigned to the administration area of the Office. The organisation of the Appeals Officer's work has been changed so as to increase productivity. A project to improve the business processes in the office is underway and a number of improvements have already been implemented. Significant enhancements are being made to the Office's IT and phone systems.

Notwithstanding these measures, it is clear that further additional staff will be required in the short term to address the backlog that has developed. Any such staff must be very experienced and be in a position to operate without significant training. Therefore it has been decided to use experienced retired staff strictly on a short term basis to supplement the current resources. Average Time in weeks taken To Process Appeals at 30/4/2010