Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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Question 363: To ask the Minister for Social Protection if her attention has been drawn to the fact that persons seeking refunds of health or PRSI contributions are waiting up to 12 months for a refund; her plans to deal with this backlog which is primarily affecting persons on low incomes; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18650/11]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The volume of applications for refunds of PRSI has increased significantly in recent years rising from 9,000 applications in 2007 to 23,000 applications in 2010. This has inevitably given rise to delays in processing applications.

In order to speed up the processing of claims for PRSI refunds, the Department has reviewed the relevant processes and procedures and appropriate changes have been implemented. In addition work is currently underway to develop a technical solution to enable the automated processing of refund claims. Since the end of March 2011 the automated processing facility is being used to process the "under the ceiling" category of PRSI refund and it is hoped to have all such refund applications cleared by the end of August 2011.

Development work is ongoing to extend the capacity of the new system to deal with more complicated refund applications. It is expected that when all development work has been completed the automated system will significantly improve processing capacity and provide an acceptable level of customer service in this area.