Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein)
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116. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the reason that data is not available for the average wait times for additional needs' payments; and her views on whether having this data would better inform the Government of any potential issues with the system. [3436/23]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Community Welfare Service is committed to providing a quality service to all citizens, ensuring that applications are processed and that decisions on entitlement are made as quickly as possible.

Applications for Additional Needs Payments are varied and often quite complex, reflecting the individual circumstances being experienced. Where it is clear that a person has an urgent or immediate need, every effort is made to ensure that the claim is processed on the same day. Community Welfare Officers are very experienced and can generally assess when a case is so urgent that it requires an immediate response. Approximately 10% of CWS payments to customers across the country are made on this basis, which shows just how responsive the service is to an urgent customer need.

My Department is continuing to develop the statistical output of the ANP scheme to enhance the future dissemination of processing data for Additional Needs Payments for all stakeholders. A high percentage of applications are finalised within 2 weeks and there is less than 2 weeks work on hands currently.

I trust this clarifies the matter.