Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 18 December 2018
646. Deputy Aindrias Moynihan asked the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the waiting period for applications for domiciliary care allowance; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [53476/18]
View answerThe Department has a processing target to finalise 90% of domiciliary care allowance (DCA) applications within 10 weeks. Processing times can be affected at particular times of the year by the volume of applications received, the complexity of individual cases, the need for additional information beyond that provided on application, and the availability of resources. While a small number of applications can take longer to process than the norm, the overall average time taken to process DCA applications has remained at just under 10 weeks throughout 2018. This is a significant improvement on 2017 when the average time taken to process an application was over 16 weeks.
The Department constantly monitors, reviews and modifies procedures and the allocation of resources in response to any changes in processing times. This ensures that any divergence from the agreed target is identified and rectified as quickly as possible.
I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
