Mr. Noel Hand:

It is important when we get into this discussion to look at the construct of the organisation of the community welfare service, particularly in the years from 2019 onwards. In the years from 2019 up to 2022, our claim load levels dropped quite significantly. Throughout that period, the Department maintained its staffing levels in the community welfare service. It was mentioned in the opening statement that the staffing complement in the service is around 412 staff. Despite a position where claim load levels were falling, the Department maintained the staffing levels in the community welfare service throughout those years. We have continued to have staff in locations right across the country. That staffing position was not changed. When we came into 2022, even though there was an increase in activity, the staffing levels that were in place were sufficient to meet the demand that we were starting to experience. There was some criticism that we did not have sufficient staff in place to meet the demands that we were seeing but that was not actually the case. What we tried to do was react and respond to the increase in claim activity in 2022, which was quite unprecedented. There was the onset of the arrival of Ukrainian people and then the cost-of-living increases. We did have the staffing levels in place to deal with the activity we were experiencing.

With regard to access, the position changed in March 2020 due to the arrival of Covid and the public health restrictions that happened at that time. It was important for the community welfare service to be able to continue to maintain its service throughout the Covid pandemic. The service evolved over that particular period of time when we were not in a position to meet people on a face-to-face basis. The experience over that period of time was that people wanted different ways to access the service. We have been very focused on improving access to the service. Up until that point it really was a single point of access where if someone wanted to make a claim they had to engage and meet directly with a CWO. What we have done now is try to put multiple access points in place for people to access the service. Ultimately people have to complete a claims form to make a claim for the additional needs payment or for any of the other schemes. What we have done is improve the ability of people to access the service through multiple channels and not just by meeting directly with a CWO. Now people do not actually have to meet a CWO to make a claim. They can download the claim form from gov.ie. The forms are available from multiple access points, including social welfare and Intreo centres and branch offices. They are widely available out in the community so that people can get the form and submit the claim to us without actually physically engaging with anyone.

We have maintained CWOs right up and down the country in communities. They are available now in 50 Intreo centres every day of the week and also in a number of outreach locations. They are available to go out by appointment where needed. We have also introduced a national community welfare telephone line. That access point has been very successful. We are taking somewhere in the region of 1,700 telephone calls a week to that line, with 94% of calls made being answered. People have the ability to get in contact immediately with a CWO without needing to travel, or as the Deputy mentioned in her constituency, without needing to come out on the road and travel a distance into an office. That requirement is not there now. If somebody comes on the telephone line, speaks to a CWO and needs an immediate engagement, we can facilitate that with onward connection to the local CWO, who can then, if the need arises, go out on the ground to meet the person directly in their home or at another agreed location. We are certainly in the business of trying to improve access, not restrict it, and make access to the service much easier.

The Deputy mentioned the hubs. The establishment of administrative hubs is to make the service more efficient. While the claims would go into entry points, they are then sent back to the local CWO for decision. All the hub does is prepare the claim and make it ready for the CWO.

The claim is then electronically transferred back to the local area to the local CWO for decision. It is about getting those claims into the system, improving that application process to speed it all up and removing the CWO from being involved in the administrative tasks associated with getting the claim ready for decision.