Michael Bell
Question:7 Mr. Bell asked the Minister for Social Welfare the plans, if any, he has to deal with the substantial appeals on disability benefit resulting from the postal dispute; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Ceisteanna-Questions. Oral Answers. - Disability Benefit Appeals.
The processing of social welfare appeals and of the Department's claims and payments generally was given constant and particular attention throughout the recent disruption to postal services and as a result there were relatively few delays of any kind experienced by social welfare clients. Now that the service is returning to normal, this attention will continue to be given by the social welfare appeals office and by my Department to ensure that any backlogs of correspondence or claims which may have been withheld with be dealt with as quickly as possible.
I would like to pay tribute to the staff of my Department and to both management and workers in An Post for their appreciation of the difficulties which were faced by social welfare clients and for the special efforts they made to ensure that payments continued to be made in time and that any difficulties were reduced to the absolute minimum.
As regards disability benefit appeals in particular, oral hearings throughout the country outside of Dublin continued to take place as normal throughout the recent disruption to postal services. In Dublin only a handful of cases appeared to have been delayed due to difficulties in delivering notifications. An examination of the total number of new appeals registered during the dispute was only slightly lower than the normal intake which would indicate that there is not any substantial number of appeals awaiting lodgment. However, I have asked the social welfare appeals office to ensure that any cases experiencing delay should be dealt with as a matter of urgency.
I must say I am surprised at the Minister's reply but let me join with him in paying tribute on behalf of my own party, and I am sure like sentiments will be expressed by all sides of the House, to the postal workers for the manner in which they dealt with people on social welfare. It was a great example of good trade union spirit and I am sure that is appreciated by the general public. Is the Minister aware that my information is that appeals were suspended in Dublin particularly, and elsewhere, because of the regulation which outlines that they must be sent by registered post and that was not possible during the period of the dispute?
That is not the information available in my Department. Examination of the figures would indicate that there will be a slight drop in the number of appeals hearings etc. I, too, would like to thank the postal workers and particularly the staff of the Department of Social Welfare who worked long hours, some of them coming in as early as 6 a.m. or 7 a.m. to ensure that the system was manned as effectively as possible to get over the problems of the postal dispute. I want to thank also the postal workers who co-operated in ensuring that social welfare recipients were not disadvantaged in any way. It is only fair to place my remarks in that regard on record.
I can give Deputy Bell some figures showing part of the difficulties experienced in Dublin. There were no problems for the rest of the country. We had advertisements in the papers telling people how they could lodge their appeals, etc. The figures seem to indicate that on a rolling monthly basis we do not have a serious backlog as a result of the postal dispute. The social welfare appeals office will be taking the matter in hand in any event. That is the information available to date.