Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
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Question 410: To ask the Minister for Social Protection if there are plans to increase staffing levels in the social welfare appeals office, in D'Olier House, D'Olier Street, in view of the fact that there is a back log of several months. [27158/12]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I am advised by the Social Welfare Appeals Office that, based on figures for the first quarter of 2012, the average waiting time for appeals dealt with by summary decisions was 22.4 weeks and 40.9 weeks for those that required an oral hearing. The comparable times for 2011 were 25 weeks and 52.5 weeks.

In an effort to reduce the processing times, the Department appointed 12 additional Appeals Officers in 2010 and 2011. In addition, a further 10 Appeals Officers, formerly employed by the Community Welfare Services (CWS) of the Health Services Executive joined the Office as part of the integration of the CWS appeals services into the Social Welfare Appeals Office. This brought the total number of Appeals Officers to 39.

The matter of assigning additional Appeals Officers is kept under constant review but any consideration of extra assignments must be taken in the context of overall government policy on civil service numbers.