Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have one contribution to make on the section. It relates to a point I made earlier but I will not repeat it, which you also raised, Chairman, namely, what safety nets are being put in place to ensure that people do not fall through the cracks while in the transition from one set of payments to the other. The family income supplement is of concern to me. The Minister of State is aware that it can take anything up to three months to process a family income supplement, FIS, application. By the time an individual is called for a meeting in an Intreo office, the options are outlined and he or she applies for the FIS, standard run-of-the-mill cases will go beyond the specified date in July. However, bearing in mind that here will be an influx of cases to the FIS system on foot of the change, are the resources being put in place to ensure applications are addressed in a prompt manner? What safety net will be put in place? I refer to people moving from the one-parent family payment to the jobseeker's allowance in transition, as you mentioned previously, Chairman, or someone moving to the FIS. Could the Minister of State give me an assurance that no one will be allowed to fall through the cracks in that regard?

This will cause hardship. The difficulty is that once people are working they will not be eligible for supplementary welfare allowance. This emergency safety net will not be there for them. All of a sudden, they will have increased child care costs during the summer and a drop in their income. For many people dependent on social welfare a delay of two or three days can cause huge hardship, never mind losing out on a payment for a number of weeks when they do not have the safety net of the supplementary welfare allowance. Will the Minister of State at least ensure that at the very minimum anyone transitioning from the one-parent family payment will have an automatic entitlement to supplementary welfare allowance pending the resolution of the situation so people do not fall through the cracks? If the Department does its job right the numbers involved should be very small and there should not be a huge cost to the Exchequer, but if it gets it wrong it will cause huge financial hardship for many families and many children who may be in very vulnerable households from a financial perspective. Will the Minister of State give an assurance by stating that in these exceptional circumstances supplementary welfare allowance will be made available to rectify the situation even if a person is over the threshold?