Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is quite frustrating that the witnesses do not seem to acknowledge that CWOs have been removed from the community. We have all said it. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul has raised issues regarding accessibility and its staff take 2,000 calls for assistance per week. We are not all wrong and there is an issue. The witnesses have repeatedly referred to the phone. What about people who either do not want to speak over the phone, do not have a phone, are in domestic violence situations where they cannot pick up a phone and talk to someone for ten minutes about their circumstances or arrange a meeting, or older and vulnerable people who do not have that option and will not use the phone? Then their option is to drive to Roscommon but they cannot get to Roscommon.

The witnesses have spoken a lot about CWOs and what they are doing. Have they engaged directly with them? What I have heard from some of them is that people who are in need are not getting the service. That is alarming. Have the witnesses spoken directly to all of the CWOs, even in recent weeks and months as this cost-of-living crisis has worsened? Everyone in this room wants additional access. That is brilliant but what the Department has done is taken CWOs out of communities and rural towns and offered them a phone service and said that they will meet people in their house or meet them here and there. The Department has taken away the community base and the local knowledge where the community welfare officer knows the person and their circumstances and they are best placed to make the decision rather than have someone fill in a 16-page form, send it to Tuam or whatever hub, wait weeks and weeks, and then it goes back to the CWO, they wait longer and they then get the payment. I just do not see the point in that, whereas people could go into the health centre and speak to the CWO and can get the payment - job done. I still do not understand that. People in rural areas cannot easily get to the 50 Intreo centres. This is still a problem and it is frustrating that we are all raising it and the witnesses just do not seem to acknowledge that they have been removed from the community. I urge them to engage every CWO on these matters. That is so important.