Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Question 374: To ask the Minister for Social Protection the plans in place to rectify the delay being experienced by persons applying for carer's allowance; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32212/12]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The Department is committed to delivering the best possible service to its customers. Currently the average time taken to award a carer's allowance application is 28 weeks. There are approximately 8,650 new carer's allowance applications registered and awaiting a decision. I acknowledge that the time taken to process carer's allowance claims at present is not satisfactory but I am satisfied that the Department is taking action to resolve the situation.

A major service delivery modernisation project is underway to improve the efficiency of administration of the carer's allowance scheme. This involves the deployment of information technology solutions 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 customers. Significant internal resources have been invested in the development and rollout of the new computer system over the past 18 months or so. Full deployment of the new system for carer's allowance has now completed. In tandem with this implementation of the new system, a comprehensive business process improvement exercise has recently commenced, the focus of which is to optimise performance and provide improved customer service. However it is expected to be a number of months before the backlog is reduced to an acceptable level.