John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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Question 77: To ask the Minister for Social Protection the reason for the delay in issuing files from the carer's allowance section to the appeals office; if she will examine the case of a person (details supplied) who requested an appeal on 12 April 2011 and whose file did not reach the appeals office until 1 September 2011; if she will ensure that information is passed between sections in her Department within a reasonable amount of time; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24290/11]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The person concerned was refused 150% carer's allowance on 15 February 2011 on the grounds that the care recipients are not in need of full time care and attention. This decision was appealed in April 2011 and her file and papers were forwarded to the Social Welfare Appeals Office for determination on 31 August 2011. The delay in processing and forwarding the papers for appeal is regretted.

Carer's allowance commenced a major service delivery modernisation project at the beginning of 2011 involving the development of IT functionality and associated business process re-organisation. It is anticipated that the new system will introduce significant processing efficiencies and a quicker and more responsive service to the customer. In order to ensure the success of this project, significant staff resources within carer's allowance section have been allocated to the IT development project and will continue to be required in the short-term. This has had a negative but temporary impact on claim processing times.

However, I am pleased to say that the modernisation project is on target and the first tranche of new carer's allowance claims are being processed under the new system since the beginning of this month. Every effort is being made to ensure that claims are processed as quickly as possible and backlogs reduced having regard to workload and priorities.