Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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1192. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the average time it takes for a domiciliary carer's allowance application to be processed; the number of applications that were processed in 2016 and to date in 2017; the number of applications awaiting a decision; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [45835/17]

Finian McGrath (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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The Department is committed to providing a quality service to all its customers; this includes ensuring that applications are decided as quickly as possible.

A total of 7,434 applications for Domiciliary Care Allowance (DCA) were received in 2016. In 2017, to the end October, a total of 7,039 applications have been received, an increase of over 12.5% on the same period last year. The total number of new applications processed in 2016 was 6,703. By the end October 2017 some 6,849 applications have already been processed. There are currently 2,267 applications awaiting decision.

This ongoing increase in the number of applications received, together with the need to provide more detailed decision reasons in compliance with a High Court decision, has negatively impacted on the processing time for DCA applications since early 2017.

Reducing these waiting times is a priority for the Department and we are working hard to make this happen. A number of initiatives have been implemented and additional staff have been assigned to the section. This has led to a significant reduction in DCA processing times over recent months; reducing from an average of 21 weeks at the end of July 2017 to 17 weeks at the end of October 2017. It is projected that processing times will reduce further over the coming weeks, as recently assigned additional staff resources become more experienced.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.