Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 24 Nov 1998

Vol. 497 No. 2

Written Answers - Social Welfare Appeals.

Austin Deasy

Question:

41 Mr. Deasy asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs if his attention has been drawn to the worsening situation regarding the waiting period for social welfare appeals; the steps, if any, he will take to rectify the situation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19988/98]

Brian O'Shea

Question:

293 Mr. O'Shea asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the average length of time from when a notice of appeal is submitted to the date a decision is finally made by officials. [24676/98]

Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs (Mr. D. Ahern)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 41 and 293 together.

Almost 13,000 appeals were dealt with by the social welfare appeals office in 1997. The average time taken to process all of these appeals was 22 weeks. This has been reduced to 21 weeks over the first ten months of 1998.

The average period given includes all phases of appeals including the additional time involved in the determination of appeals where, for example, further investigations have to be made or where adjournments have been sought by the appellant or by the legal representative acting on his behalf.

The social welfare appeals system is a quasi-judicial one and the procedures involved are designed to ensure that every appellant's case gets full and satisfactory consideration. There is an inevitable time-lag inherent in such a process which is governed by statutory and fair procedure requirements.

In some cases appeals can be dealt with on the basis of information supplied by the appellant and the Department's deciding officer without recourse to an oral hearing and these take less than the average time. Where, however, an oral hearing is required, and additional delay is inevitable. While processing times in the social welfare appeals office compare favourably with international experience in this area, it is a major objective of the office to achieve further improvement in these times subject to the requirement that every appeal be fully investigated and examined on all its merits. To this end, four additional appeals officers were appointed during the second half of 1997 and, while the numbers of appeals is increasing, this is bringing about an improvement in processing times and will continue to do so.