Ryan O'Meara (Tipperary North, Fianna Fail)
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99. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if he has any plans to review the appeals process for the domiciliary care allowance; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33038/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The Social Welfare Appeals Office of the Department of Social Protection is responsible for determining appeals against decisions in relation to social welfare entitlements. Appeals Officers are independent in their decision-making functions. I understand from the Chief Appeals Officer that there are currently 566 Domiciliary Care Allowance appeals on hands. This is down from a figure of 1,300 in mid-May 2025. 426 of the 566 appeals still on hand relate to April, May and June. The balance of these appeals are assigned to Appeal Officers, who are waiting for additional information to be provided by the appellant or an oral hearings to take place.This reduction in pending appeals represents a significant improvement in performance and reflects measures taken by the Chief Appeals Officer to deal with the increase in appeals received during 2024. This increase reflected an increased number of claims made to the Department and an improvement, via a new online system, in access to the appeals service.As part of the measures taken by the Chief Appeals Officer 20 additional Appeals Officers were assigned and attended training during December 2024 and January 2025 and are currently making appeal decisions. In addition, new Appeals Regulations came into effect from the 28th of April which provide, among other things, for simpler processes and specified response times. The new regulations now formalise the requirement for the scheme area within the Department to carry out a review of the initial deciding officer’s decision. This should in time reduce the number of appeals that require consideration by an appeals officer.The Chief Appeals Officer continues to monitor processing times and every effort is made to reduce the time taken to process an appeal. However, the drive for efficiency must be balanced with the competing demand to ensure that decisions are consistent and made in accordance with fair procedures and the provisions set out in primary legislation and regulations.