I need to raise with the Taoiseach the length of time it takes to pay enhanced illness benefit, the payment that people switch onto if they are out of work when they have Covid. There are increased levels of Covid and of people being out of work, so there will be increased demand for the payment, one would expect. While some applications will be straightforward, for many others there is considerable delay. For example, if somebody already has a social welfare payment in the household, it creates a situation where there is an overlapping payment if somebody has to go out of work due to Covid and apply, and they can be waiting up to 12 weeks for a payment to come through. Clearly, it is the lowest income households that are being affected, and it is happening at a time when the rising cost of living is also hitting the very same households. Can the payment of these enhanced illness benefits be prioritised, particularly for those on the lowest incomes who are being hit?

I thank the Deputy for the specific nature of the question, which is on the button, as usual, in terms of the research the Deputy does on these issues. As he knows, due to the prevalence of the disease, the possibility of further variants emerging and an increase in the level of travel, the Government extended the scheme until 30 June. To date, a total of 484,941 people have received an enhanced illness benefit payment. There has been another increase in claims, particularly in the second half of March, with some 6,000 claims now being received daily. The majority of enhanced illness benefit claims are automatically processed. Where the required medical evidence is submitted with an application and the eligibility rules are met, 92% of applications were processed within a week in February. However, on the Deputy’s point, applications that require an officer to review to ensure eligibility for payment, or where the person is already in receipt of another social welfare payment, can take longer to process. Officials from the Department of Social Protection are working to clear all claims as quickly as possible, with additional resources being allocated to this work as a priority, the employment of temporary staff and system changes to increase automation within the process. There is an issue but work is being undertaken to deal with it.