Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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I made the point earlier that there is too much dependence on people having access to IT and IT knowledge nowadays when they apply for public services. It is intimidating people who, unfortunately, do not have those skills. That applies to both public services and private utilities. I instanced the valuable role of community welfare officers. We do not have enough of them nowadays. In the past, each community welfare officer covered a smaller area. These officers knew families and individuals and intervention was readily got. That happens nowadays too but there is too much pressure on the individual community welfare office as well. As a society, we need to get back to doing more in-person transactions. People should not have to be online or phoning and being asked to press X, Y or Z buttons, which drives everyone mad. There is an intolerance of people who may not have the skills or confidence to use modern means of communication or whatever. It is wrong. We need to deal with that, as well as other aspects of our system.

On behalf of the committee, I sincerely thank-----