Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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434.To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the current timeframe for appeals; if there is currently a lengthy delay registering appeals; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24662/24]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Social Welfare Appeals Office is an Office of the Department of Social Protection which is responsible for determining appeals against decisions in relation to social welfare entitlements. Appeals Officers are independent in their decision making functions.

The average processing times for all appeals finalised in 2023 was 16 weeks.

Significant efforts and resources have been devoted to reforming the appeal process in recent years and further improvements in appeals processing times are a priority for the Chief Appeals Officer. There is active engagement between the Appeals Office and the Department to ensure that the appeals process operates efficiently and that where the Deciding Officer's decision is not revised in favour of the appellant that the appeal file is provided as quickly as possible to the Appeals Office for consideration by an Appeals Officer.

Significant efforts and resources have been devoted to reforming the appeal process in recent years. An Appeals Modernisation Project is currently underway the goal of which is to streamline and enhance the end-to-end appeals process for the customer, the Social Welfare Appeals Office and business areas across the Department.

As part of this project a new IT system went live in November 2023. The new system has significantly reduced the time taken to register and acknowledge appeals lodged with the Appeals Office and in time will reduce the overall average processing times. Additional staff are being temporarily assigned to the office to assist with the registration of outstanding appeals. Further improvements in appeals processing times are a priority for the Chief Appeals Officer.

I trust this clarifies matters the matter for the Deputy.