Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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Question 169: To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number of applications for the respite grant to date in 2011; the number of applications which have not been processed and awarded; the average time it is currently taking her to process respite grant applications; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [20596/11]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The Respite Care Grant is an annual payment made to all persons providing full-time care, regardless of means or PRSI contributions, but subject to certain conditions. The grant is payable from the first Thursday in June of the year in question.

Details of the number of stand-alone applications, from carers not in receipt of Carer's Allowance, Carer's Benefit or Domiciliary Care Allowance, for the period January 2011 to end-June 2011 are set below. In addition to these cases payments have been made in respect of the circa €75,000 people in receipt of carers allowance / carers benefit and domiciliary care allowance. The average time taken to process an application in this period was 19 weeks.

Stand-alone Respite Care Grant applications 2011