Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On the off-chance that any of my constituents are tuned in to these proceedings, I wish to put on record my aspirations for the Limerick office, echoing exactly Deputy Ó Snodaigh's aspirations for the Ballyfermot office. I deal with the Limerick office as well as the Department centrally, and by and large, although they are under pressure, the staff are very helpful and are doing a good job in difficult circumstances, with the explosion of unemployment in the last number of years.

Unemployment has in recent years put a great deal of pressure on the staff in the Department, and by and large they have coped pretty well with it. When I deal with staff in the Limerick office they tell me, in the event of a delay in the investigation of a claim, that they do not have enough staff. It is the old story. As everybody knows, community welfare officers were transferred from the HSE to the Department of Social Protection, as were the people from FÁS, to do a specific job on the Pathways to Work programme. Apart from those groups, how many people were transferred from other Departments where - and I say this with all due respect - staff might not be overwhelmed with work? It was envisaged in Croke Park I that there would be fairly free redeployment. How many staff, apart from the community welfare officers and the people from FÁS, have joined the Department of Social Protection from other Departments?