Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 351: To ask the Minister for Social Protection his views on the fact that a person (details supplied) in County Mayo is waiting for an appeal to be heard since January 2010. [26371/10]

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 352: To ask the Minister for Social Protection if a person (details supplied) in County Mayo is being denied their constitutional right to an appeal in view of the inordinate amount of time which they are waiting for their appeal to be heard. [26372/10]

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 351 and 352 together.

The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that the appeal from the person concerned was opened on 18 March 2010 and relevant Departmental papers and comments by the Social Welfare Services on the grounds of appeal were sought. These are now to hand and will be referred to an Appeals Officer for consideration. As part of this consideration the Appeals Officer will determine if an oral hearing is warranted in this case.

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. The Social Welfare Appeals Officer functions independently of the Minister for Social Protection and of the Department and is responsible for determining appeals against decisions on social welfare entitlements.