Ms Niamh O'Donoghue:

The Deputy can imagine a situation where, prior to the integration of services, the community welfare officers might be in a different office in a different part of the city. Somebody would come in to make a claim in the Department of Social Protection, complete their paperwork and give us the claim details. Having provided all of that, they might have had some expectation that they would get a decision within a couple of weeks from the Department. If they had immediate income need, they would have been told they had to go and see the community welfare officer, and they would get assessed there and then and get paid BASI, probably within a couple of days. Having the integrated decision teams in place in the Department more or less guarantees that the person will now have a decision within a day or two, certainly within a week.