Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change)
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129. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she will provide evidence around her Department’s assertions that staff members moving into the Social Welfare Appeals Office were experienced staff from within her Department. [15197/23]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I understand the Deputy may be referring to a discussion on the operation of the Social Welfare Appeals Office that took place in the Committee on Social Protection, Community and Rural Development and the Islands, in November of last year. In the course of the debate the issue of staff turnover was discussed and the Deputy expressed concern about the loss of experienced appeals officers. The Deputy indicated that she understood that approximately 70% of appeals officers over the last couple of years were new hires. I can confirm that this is not the case. In addition, staff appointed as appeals officers receive significant training in the legislation and regulations governing entitlement to social welfare benefits, regardless of their level of experience. In addition, an externally accredited level 8 programme, specifically developed for the social welfare appeals office and delivered in conjunction with the National College of Ireland, was introduced in recent years and is being rolled out to all appeals officers. Further, as with all management appointments, the recruitment and selection process has regard to the skills and experience level necessary for the job and as such any appointees will have gone through a robust process before any appointment is made.

More generally, the Department manages its staff turnover through succession planning and recruitment via all channels available to it including new hires through the Public Appointments Service (PAS), external (PAS) promotion panels, internal promotion panels, internal mobility and external mobility through the Civil Service Mobility Schemes. Finally, I would reiterate the point made at the Committee debate that, in response to the increased volume and complexity of work of the Appeals Office over the past 20 years, the Department has responded in a number of ways including significantly increasing the staffing compliment of the office.