Tom Fleming (Kerry South, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

90. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will provide, in tabular form and by county, the number of recipients of farm assist granted and refused from 1 January 2014 to date in 2015; the average waiting time for decisions on appeals; the number of appeals referred for independent oral appeal; and the percentage of these approved and refused. [14493/15]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The information requested by the Deputy in respect of a per-county breakdown of the number of farm assist claims awarded or refused from 1 January 2014 to date in 2015 is not available in my Department. I am however informed that there was an average of 9,854 monthly recipients during this period. A breakdown of the number of recipients in each of the months by county is detailed in the tabular statements.

The average time taken to process Farm Assist appeals by summary decision in 2014 was 23.2 weeks and 28.3 weeks for those requiring an oral hearing. The average time for 2015 to the end of March was 16.2 weeks for summary decision and 24.6 weeks for oral hearing.

The number of Farm Assist appeals decided by oral hearing in 2014 was 112 of which 70 (62.5 %) had a successful outcome for the appellant. In 2015 to the end of March the number decided by oral hearing was 20 of which 13 (65.0 %) had a successful outcome.

Farm Assist Recipients 2014

Farm Assist Recipients 2015