Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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Question 44: To ask the Minister for Social Protection her views that the delay in the hearing of appeals for mortgage interest supplement are causing difficulties and stalling court cases to which they are relevant; and the steps she will take to fast track these appeals. [10442/11]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which includes mortgage interest supplement, is administered on behalf of the Department by the Community Welfare Services division of the Health Services Executive (HSE). Mortgage interest supplements provide short-term income support to eligible people who are unable to meet their mortgage interest repayments in respect of a house which is their sole place of residence. There are currently 18,500 households benefiting from a mortgage interest supplement payment, an increase of 350% over those in payment at end 2007. Applications for mortgage interest supplement and appeals in relation to these applications are made in the first instance to the HSE. Those dissatisfied with the outcome of this process may appeal to the Social Welfare Appeals Office.

I am informed by that Office that 153 appeals in relation to Mortgage Interest Supplement were finalised by Appeals Officers in 2009, 140 in 2010 and 84 to date in 2011. The total number of appeals finalised by Appeals Officers in the same period were 10,027 in 2009, 17,499 in 2010 and 7,284 to date in 2011.

The overall number of supplementary welfare allowance appeals made to the Social Welfare Appeals Office was 789 in 2009 and 989 in 2010. While it is not possible to say how many of these related to Mortgage Interest Payments, the numbers decided show that it is quite low.

While in general, appeals are dealt with in strict chronological order, those appeals relating to basic supplementary welfare allowance payments are dealt with on a priority basis. The average time taken to process these appeals in 2010 was 6.9 weeks for those dealt with by way of a summary decision and 14.8 weeks for those given an oral hearing.

In an effort to reduce these processing times, the Department has made 9 additional appointments to the office in recent weeks. These assignments will augment the 3 appointments made to the Office in 2010, bringing the total number of Appeals Officers serving in the office to 29.