I am asking this question on behalf of my colleague an Teachta Darren O'Rourke. It is fairly straightforward. It is just looking for the number and percentage of disability allowance decisions that are appealed, and the number and percentage of decisions overturned on appeal. What we are seeking to understand is the reasoning. In most circumstances, nothing changes materially, so it is essentially the same person submitting the same claim again. Sometimes it is overturned. My feeling is that a high number of cases are overturned on appeal but I await the figures from the Minister.
Sentiment score: 0.06
Sixty percent of them?
Sentiment score: 0.00
It had better be something good because that is not a good figure. It is traumatic for people to have to go through the application process. I know the Minister has sat in his constituency office with people and has gone through these forms the same as I have, so he knows these forms are not easy. They are necessarily comprehensive and I am not for a moment suggesting that the information should not be collected but if 60% of them result in what the Minister refers to as a favourable outcome, that is not exactly a massive endorsement of the process that happens initially. With regard to 60% of them being overturned, the Minister says that new information can be provided but that is not an indication that there is new information. In my experience, very often, it involves the same information and the same person with the same disability and 60% of them are being overturned. That figure is one that should cause the Minister some concern.
Sentiment score: -0.05
Those figures are not brilliant. The Minister can present it any way he likes but those are not good figures. He mentioned medical professionals. The problem is not specific to Balbriggan but the most recent case that was brought to me is in Balbriggan where doctors are now refusing to fill out these forms and not just for people on the medical card, although it happens a lot with people on the medical card. I always encourage my constituents to appeal where a decision goes against them if I feel they have grounds for that. Increasingly, I am advising people to appeal but they have to go back to their doctors now and they are not getting the forms filled out. The doctors are just point blank refusing them. The former Minister for Health, Dr. James Reilly, was in the newspapers sometime back regarding all the money he gets, and rightly so, for the medical card patients he has but some of these practices are getting a lot of money from the State and are then refusing to handle requirements for applications for payments from the State. It is a bit much. I know that is somewhat tangential but it is a very serious issue.
Sentiment score: -0.21
10. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Social Protection if the required additional funding has been provided to social welfare branch managers to pay for pension auto enrolment costs imposed from 1 January 2026 and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31208/26]
Sentiment score: -0.05
Industrial relations are a bit like the song "Hotel California", in that, apparently, I was able to check out but, unfortunately, was unable to leave. This industrial relations dispute concerns branch managers of social welfare offices. The Minister will be aware of the dispute. He will also be aware of the requirement by the Department that branch managers participate in auto enrolment but if it is not funded, how are they going to be able to do that?
Sentiment score: -0.30
I might do the lotto on my way home because apparently I have incredible powers of prediction. I literally told the Minister this was going to happen. I said that if the Minister did not provide funding for people and if he put in an obligation regarding auto enrolment, particularly on organisations and entities that do not have access to any revenue-raising powers, this would happen. These people cannot raise revenue; they are not in a position to do that. They are entirely dependent on the State and the Minister knows that. He put the obligation for the auto enrolment on them. They want to be part of the auto enrolment scheme but my information is the Minister's Department is refusing to go to arbitration with them. That is very much a backwards step. We know we have the Kevin Duffy recommendation, which was accepted by both sides, but the individual branch managers want to be in a financial position to discharge their obligations. They have no capacity to raise the revenue, the Minister knows that, and the obligation is on his Department. I welcome that there is news in the coming days and I would welcome it even more in the Minister's next contribution if he advised me this is going to be good news for the branch managers and news that will allow them to discharge their obligations for auto enrolment and stay within their budgetary guidelines.
Sentiment score: 0.03