Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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421. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the average turnaround time from when a review with new medical evidence is sent to a medical assessor to when the opinion of the medical assessor is sent to a deciding officer; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [57070/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy has advised that the scope of the PQ relates to customer requests for decision reviews pertaining to the Domiciliary Care Allowance scheme.

My Department is committed to ensuring that claims and reviews are processed as expeditiously as possible and to providing a quality service to all claimants.

The average turnaround time from when a review for Domiciliary Care Allowance with new medical evidence is sent to a Medical Assessor to when the opinion of the Medical Assessor is sent to a Deciding Officer is 12 days as evidenced in the most recent calendar year from 1st November 2020 to 31st October 2021.

The time taken to assess each case can vary depending on the complexities of the case and the volume of documents submitted.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.