Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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Question 1250: To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number of applications currently with the social welfare appeals office; his plans to allocate staff to this office; the plans he has in place to reduce the backlog of applications; if his attention has been drawn to the fact that appeal cases can take up to 12 months to process; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32255/10]

Jim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 1259: To ask the Minister for Social Protection if his attention has been drawn to the hardship caused to applicants by delays in social welfare appeals; and his plans to improve this situation. [32504/10]

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 1315: To ask the Minister for Social Protection the average waiting time for a social welfare appeal; and the average waiting time for an appeal requiring an oral hearing. [33296/10]

Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Question 1333: To ask the Minister for Social Protection the extent of the backlog that exists in relation to appeals for social welfare payments; the number on this list; the length of time that they been waiting on a response; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33720/10]

Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)
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Question 1373: To ask the Minister for Social Protection the size of the backlog in processing social welfare appeals; the number per county; when these backlogged appeals will be processed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33890/10]

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1250, 1259, 1315, 1333 and 1373 together.

I am informed by the Social Welfare Appeals Office there are currently 20,446 appeals being processed. Given the volume of appeals, it is not possible to estimate the length of time before a case is determined. There are no statistics available on a county basis.

During 2009, the average time taken to process all appeals (i.e. those decided summarily and by way of oral hearing) was 24 weeks. This represents an increase of 2 weeks in the time taken to process appeals when compared to 2008. Given the logistics involved in organising oral hearings, including allowing sufficient advance notice to the appellant, it is estimated that the average time to finalise an appeal is increased by about 11 weeks when an oral hearing is involved.

There was a 46% increase in the number of appeals received by the Social Welfare Appeals Office in 2009 when compared to 2008, which in itself was 27% greater than the numbers received in 2007. There was an increase of a further 44% in the number of appeals received in the first eight months of 2010. These increases have caused delays in the processing of appeals. In order to be fair to all appellants, the vetting of appeals and the arranging of oral hearings are being dealt with in chronological order. A number of initiatives have been put in place 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 were 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 was undertaken which has resulted in a number of improvements being implemented,

and

Significant enhancements have been made to the office's IT and phone systems.

In addition, it was decided to use experienced retired staff strictly on a short term basis to supplement the current resources and the services of eight retired officers have now been secured on a part-time basis and have been operating since July.

I am assured by the Chief Appeals Officer that she is keeping current processes under continuous review with a view to achieving a more effective throughput of appeals, while ensuring that any progress does not conflict with due process in terms of the rights of appellants and adherence to the requirements of natural justice.