Naoise Ó Cearúil (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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115. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection to address delays in processing illness benefit and invalidity pension; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50783/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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My Department is committed to providing a quality service to all its customers. This includes ensuring that applications are processed and that decisions on entitlement are made as quickly as possible.

Processing times vary across schemes, depending on the differing eligibility criteria. Schemes that require a high level of documentary evidence from the customer, particularly in the case of health-related schemes, can take longer to process.

My Department continually strives to process applications within or below the target processing times set for each scheme.

To enable my Department to make timely and fair decisions on applications, applicants should ensure that they complete the application fully and attach all the supporting documentation required. It is particularly important that an applicant provides, at the outset, all the relevant details to best support their claim. This will eliminate the requirement for a Deciding Officer to have to revert to an applicant for clarifications or missing information.

Significant efforts and resources have been devoted to providing a timely service and improving times and I am pleased to say most schemes are better than or within target. The desire to process applications quickly must be balanced with ensuring decisions are consistent and of high quality and made in accordance with the legislative provisions.

The table below shows the average processing times at the end of August 2025 for Illness Benefit and Invalidity Pension.