John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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442. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the status of an application by a person (details supplied) under the carer's allowance scheme including if he will expedite and approve it. [9448/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I confirm that the department received an application for carer’s allowance (CA) from the person concerned on 28 January 2016 in respect of two care recipients. Unfortunately, the average time taken at present to decide a new application is running at 19 weeks. Additional resources have been provided to the CA section in order to improve the waiting times for new applications and they are working hard to make this happen.

This application will be processed as quickly as possible and the person concerned will be notified directly of the outcome. In the meantime, the person concerned is in receipt of a weekly social welfare support.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.