David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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179. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the time it takes to receive a decision from the medical review and assessment section, for certain payments (details supplied) as of 14 June 2016 or the closest date on which data are available; the time it took to receive a decision from the medical review and assessment section for the payments as of January 2016; the time it took to receive a decision from the medical review and assessment section for the payments as of June 2015; if there has been an increase in the time it takes to receive a decision from the medical review and assessment section for the payments with regard to the 12-month period from June 2015 and June 2016 or closest date to June 2016 on which data are available; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17812/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The main role of the Department’s Medical Assessor (MA) in Medical Review and Assessment Section is to assess a customer for medical eligibility, based on medical certification and reports provided by the customer’s medical practitioner and in some instances via in-person assessments. The MA provides a medical opinion to a Deciding Officer in the Department’s relevant scheme area to aid them making their overall final decision, which may also involve non-medical criteria (e.g. means and residency for Disability Allowance and numbers of PRSI contributions for Invalidity Pension). If a customer is found to be not eligible on their claim, they are entitled to request a review/appeal while submitting new medical evidence for assessment. Statistics are provided for the following schemes as requested:

- Disability Allowance,

- Illness Benefit,

- Invalidity Pension,

- Occupational Injury benefit and

- Partial Capacity Benefit.

No statistics are available for Blind Pension but it is normal practice for medical opinions to be returned to the scheme area within 2/3 days. As agreed with the Deputy, the statistics are broken down into 3 different groupings: January – May 2015, January – May 2016 and also January – December 2015.

It will be noted that waiting times have increased somewhat in 2016. This is due to Medical Assessors’ availability and an increase in the overall number of applications. An MA recruitment campaign has just ended and it is expected to employ additional MAs in the near future and a further recruitment campaign will be held in the Autumn. In the meantime MA resources have been prioritised on customers on whose applications a payment may be dependant. Accordingly a marked improvement in waiting times should be noticeable in the coming months.