Kevin O'Keeffe (Cork East, Fianna Fail)
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248. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if additional staff will be made available to help clear the backlog of applications for carer's allowance, disability allowance and domiciliary care allowance. [53396/17]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, 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. The staffing needs for all areas within the Department are continuously reviewed, taking account of workloads, management priorities and the competing demands arising, 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.

Like all Government departments and agencies, my Department is required to operate within a staff ceiling figure and a commensurate administrative staffing budget, which for this Department has involved reductions in staff numbers. Within these constraints, the Department is focusing on prioritising the filling of critical posts.

Remedial action has been taken to respond to the ongoing significant increase in the number of claims for domiciliary care allowance, carers allowance and disability allowance, in order to reduce the average processing time. Providing sufficient resources for these scheme areas remains a priority.