Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

241. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if measures are being put in place to reduce long waiting times for applications to be processed within her Department. [8741/19]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

My Department is committed to providing a quality service to all its customers. This includes ensuring that applications are processed as quickly as possible.

Where any scheme area experiences delays, all possible steps are taken to improve processing times. This includes the assignment of additional resources, where available, and the review of business processes, to ensure the efficient processing of applications.

In general, social welfare schemes with a number of complex qualifying conditions can take longer to process. One such example is the carer's allowance scheme.

To qualify for carer's allowance, the carer must show that they are habitually resident in the State, that they are providing full-time care and attention to a person who requires this level of care and that their means are less than the statutory limit.

On average in January, it took 16 weeks to award a new carer's allowance application.

While the average processing time is still higher than it should be, the re-assignment of staff from other areas of the Longford Centralised Schemes Office to claims processing in October has resulted in the a significant reduction in the number of claims awaiting decision and I expect the average processing time to reduce over the coming months.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.