Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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157. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number of persons working in the social welfare appeals office; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25248/17]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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There are currently 82 staff members (77.65 FTE) working in the Social Welfare Appeals Office.

My Department, like all Government departments and agencies is required to operate within a staff ceiling figure and a commensurate administrative staffing budget, which for this Department has involved reductions in staff.

The staffing needs for all areas within the Department are continuously reviewed, taking account of workloads, management priorities and the ongoing need to respond to new increasing demands in a wide range of services. This is to ensure that the best use is made of all available resources with a view to providing an efficient service to those who rely on the schemes operated by the Department.

Appeal processing times are kept under constant scrutiny by the Chief Appeals Officer. The Deputy will be aware that significant effort and resources have been devoted in recent years to reducing the length of the time taken to finalise an appeal and that as a consequence processing times have improved quite considerably.