Pat Gallagher (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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584. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if her attention has been drawn to the considerable time delays in approving domiciliary care allowance applications; her plans to improve the timeframe for processing applications in view of 18-week delays; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [30122/17]

Finian McGrath (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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Processing times for Domiciliary Care Allowance (DCA) are currently not meeting the target of having 70% of applications processed within 15 weeks. At present it is taking up to 18 weeks on average to finalise an application. There are a number of factors that have contributed to the extended time required to process claims.

First, there is a significant increase in the volume of applications being received. The numbers applying for DCA have doubled since 2010, when the Department took over administration of the scheme from the HSE. The increase in volume over recent years has been consistently in the 15-20% range year on year.

Second, following a High Court ruling in 2016, there is now a need for the Department’s medical assessors to provide the deciding officer with a more detailed opinion on the child’s eligibility for the scheme and for the deciding officer in turn to provide more detailed reasons for their decision when communicating this to the customer. These factors have resulted in the time taken to finalise applications increasing significantly and as a result the numbers being processed have reduced and the timescale to finalise each application has increased.

In response to the current situation, additional deciding officers are being assigned to the scheme and will take up their positions shortly. Once these extra resources are in situ and operational, the extra processing capacity should allow for an improvement in processing times. The position is being monitored closely.