Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator. He makes a fair point. There are many supports available. There are a couple of points I would make in response, particularly in the context of the past 12 months. Intreo offices have remained open. They are open at least three mornings a week in most communities. That is the first thing I would say to a person who ask me what they are entitled to, apart from asking them to outline their circumstances. There are offices open across the country and people can drop in to them. Obviously, we are primarily directing people to access online information. I am not going to tell people to look at the website because they know that it is available. In terms of having a person with whom to interact on a one-to-one basis such that the complexity of a situation can be described, examined and considered and the appropriateness of the various payments can be considered, I make that additional point about the Intreo offices.

There have been fairly significant public information campaigns in the past 12 months, particularly around the PUP. Access to the PUP is quite broad; many groups can access it. That message has been going out on pretty much every channel we can use to get the message across.

If we are speaking about people who are in difficult situations and who may not be fully au fait with their entitlements, I draw attention to SICAP. The latter is operated by 49 local development companies across the country. They are in every community. They have workers embedded in communities who know where the vulnerabilities lie in those communities. Their services have remained accessible during this time, although not necessarily in the same open-door manner as the Intreo offices. Those are the three initial responses I would offer on the fair point raised by the Senator.