Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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773. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the average wait time for a decision on an appeal for each social welfare payment, in tabular form. [48654/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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I am advised by the Social Welfare Appeals Office that the average processing time for appeals that have been processed up to end of Quarter 2 2025 is 21.9 weeks.

The average processing time for appeals during 2024 was 23.5 weeks. The breakdown for each social welfare payment during 2024 will be available in the Social Welfare Appeals Office Annual Report which is currently being finalised and is due to be published shortly.

The Chief Appeals Officer, at the end of last year put in place measures to deal with the increase in appeals received during 2024 including assigning an additional 20 Appeals Officers to the Social Welfare Appeals Office.

In addition, new Social Welfare Appeals Regulations (S.I. No. 744 of 2024) came into effect on 28 April 2025 which provide, among other things, for simpler processes and specified response times. These should further help to reduce processing times.

The Chief Appeals Officer continues to monitor the number of appeals on hand and appeal 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 the provisions set out in primary legislation and regulations.