Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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507. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of staff working in the social welfare appeals office; the grades of these staff members; and the average time taken for a social welfare appeal to be concluded. [42743/24]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Social Welfare Appeals Office is an Office of the Department of Social Protection which is responsible for determining appeals against decisions in relation to social welfare entitlements. Appeals Officers are independent in their decision making functions.

The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that the current number of staff working in that office is 83 (full time equivalents). This is broken down in the table below:

Significant efforts and resources have been devoted to reforming the appeal process in recent years.

Further improvements in appeals processing times are a priority for the Chief Appeals Officer. A significant Appeals Modernisation Project is currently underway the goal of which is to streamline and enhance the end-to-end appeals process for the customer, the Social Welfare Appeals Office and business areas across the Department.

As part of this project a new IT system went live on the 6th November 2023. The new system has significantly reduced the time taken to register and acknowledge appeals lodged with the Appeals Office and in time will reduce the overall average processing times. Additional staff were assigned to the office as part of the project to assist with the preparation for and transition to the new IT system and the establishment of new procedures.

The current average processing times for an appeal to be concluded are 17.6 weeks with a Summary Decision and 29.2 weeks with an Oral Hearing.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.