Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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507. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the progress made to date in her Department on consolidating all means testing under a single national body in order that persons will only apply once for services or entitlements across all Government agencies, as committed to in the programme for partnership Government; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [40395/17]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The Programme for Government commitment in this area is to "consolidate all means testing under a single national body ensuring a single application process for services or entitlements across all government agencies".

This proposal would be a major project across a range of Government departments and agencies that operate schemes and services on a means/income tested basis of which my Department is just one. Significant operational, legislative and technical challenges would be involved.

In relation to my Department, IT developments in recent years have allowed for the capture and storage of means data and the reuse of that data. Amongst the many potential benefits of this reuse are a reduced administrative burden on staff and customers through greater accuracy of information, a reduced need to repeatedly ask for the same information and the ability to make better-informed decisions regarding reviews.