Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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1325.To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the current waiting time to process appeal applications; the steps her Department is taking to cope with these large numbers; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32169/24]

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 and management of the Appeals Office is the responsibility of the Chief Appeals Officer.

In 2023 the average overall processing time to finalise an appeal was 16 weeks. The time taken to process an appeal includes all elements of the process including seeking relevant documentation from the Department. The preparation of material by the Department may involve examining the original decision, seeking further medical assessments in certain illness related cases, and investigation by Social Welfare Inspectors, where required. All of these factors may extend overall processing times.

An Appeals Modernisation Project is currently underway and a new appeals IT system supporting business processes was introduced in November 2023. The second phase, including the introduction of an online appeals application process on the MyWelfare platform, will be implemented shortly. The new system has already significantly reduced the time taken to register and acknowledge appeals received and will, in time, have a positive impact on the overall average processing times. A number of internal initiatives are also being undertaken under the direction of the Chief Appeals Officer to improve the efficiency of processes within the Office.

There is active engagement between the Appeals Office and my Department to ensure that the appeals process operates as efficiently as possible and, where the Deciding Officer's decision is not revised in favour of the appellant, the relevant files are provided as promptly as possible for consideration by an Appeals Officer.