Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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645. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the current waiting times for the carer's allowance and carer's benefit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1463/17]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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My Department is committed to providing a quality service to all its customers. This includes ensuring that applications are processed and that decisions on entitlement are made as quickly as possible.

My Department has seen a significant reduction in the average CA processing from 22 weeks at the end of May 2016 to 11 weeks at the end of December 2016, while for carer’s benefit (CARB) applications it has reduced to 8 weeks. It is expected that processing times for both schemes will reduce further,

Applications for CA in 2016 were 20% higher than in 2015 while applications for CARB were 61% higher.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.