I have a question the Minister can answer. It concerns the carer's allowance and the fact that it is taking four months to reach decisions. I respectfully suggest that more staff be hired to work in that section. A family member who is quitting work to take care of a person who needs care must survive for four months with no income. This is unfair. I respect the people working in the carers section very much because I deal with them daily, as do the people in my office. The people working in the carers section are excellent and do great work, and I cannot compliment them enough, but they are obviously under an awful lot of pressure if it takes four months to reach a decision. It is very reasonable to ask the Minister, because she is the Minister with responsibility for this, what she is going to say to the people listening to the argument that it should not take four months to process their applications. What can the Minister do about that?

The Deputy is dead right. This is my responsibility and I can answer the question. The target we set for carer's allowance applications from beginning to end is 15 weeks. We are turning around applications in 14 weeks. There are a number of reasons for the length of time it takes, mostly because of medical complications, the complexities of the application and how it must be reviewed by our medical practitioners and team of assessors. Nobody has to wait four months if they are in need of a payment because every Intreo office has an exceptional needs officer to look after people in time of need. If anybody is at risk of poverty or of being unable to look after themselves on a weekly basis arising from caring for a loved one, all they have to do is contact us and we will look after them, as is our job.