262. Deputy Michael Ring asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will introduce measures to reduce the current wait time of 17.6 weeks for an appeal to be dealt with by way of a summary decision and the average wait time of 29.2 weeks to deal with an oral hearing in the Social Welfare Appeals Office; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [37405/24]

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. and management of the Appeals Office is the responsibility of the Chief Appeals Officer.

In 2023 approximately 1% of the decisions made by the Department of Social Protection were appealed to the Social Welfare Appeals Office. In 2023, the Office received 24,100 appeals. In 2024 up until 31/08/2024 the Office received 29,115 appeals, of which 25,367 were valid appeals which were registered. By comparison, over the same period in 2023 up until 31/08/2023, 16,323 appeals were registered. This is a substantial increase year on year.

An Appeals Modernisation Project is currently underway. The key features of the project are:

(1) Introduction of a new IT system for more efficient end to end processing of appeals. The first release of this system went live in November 2023 and work on adding functionality to the system is continuing.

(2) Provision of an online service for appellants to make their appeals on the MyWelfare platform. This service was implemented in July 2024 and work on enhancing online appeals functionality is continuing.

(3) Business process improvements have been introduced within the Office to improve customer service and processing times in tandem with the implementation of new systems. Several initiatives to streamline decision processes are also being undertaken.

The modernisation project has contributed to a reduction in the time taken to register and acknowledge appeals lodged with the Appeals Office and this is assisting with the management of processing times.

The new system has streamline the engagement between the Appeals Office and my Department to ensure that the appeals process operates as efficiently as possible. Where the Deciding Officer's decision is not revised in favour of the appellant, the appeal file papers are provided as quickly as possible to the Appeals Office for consideration by an Appeals Officer.

In 2023 the average time taken to process an appeal was 16.0 weeks. The average processing time for an appeal dealt with summarily was 17.6 weeks. The average processing time for an appeal that included an oral hearing was 29.2 weeks.

The average time it has taken to complete appeals submitted to the Social Welfare Appeals office for the past five years are set out below:

The desire to process appeals quickly must be balanced with the competing demand to ensure that decisions are consistent, well reasoned and of high quality and made in accordance with the legislative provisions and the general principles of fair procedures and natural justice that underpin a quasi-judicial process.

The Chief Appeals Officer closely monitors the range and extent of appeal processing times on an ongoing basis, within the resources allocated to that Office.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.