Mr. Kieran Stafford:

Certainly we have experience of people being refused help from community welfare officers for a variety of reasons and we have had to step in. We have the unusual situation whereby there is definite evidence of where CWOs send people to us having refused to help them. I have seen it myself. We operate several second-hand furniture stores around the country. There is evidence of people being sent to buy second-hand furniture from us because of inadequate money given to get a house, rather than that person being able to go into a new store and buy new furniture.

It is not consistent. There are some very good CWOs in particular areas who will go to the ends of the earth for people. Then there are others who will not do that. Again, there is inequality for people living in rural areas. The clinics may be once a fortnight or once a week in these areas, whereas in the towns they may be two or three times a week. Obviously, it depends on the numbers of people approaching.

We still get the grant but it has reduced from when we first began to get it. It came from the Department when Deputy Ó Cuív was the Minister. We use it to do the type of work we believe the Government should be doing.