Ms Teresa Leonard:

I wish to add a point. We appreciate that meeting people is good. In addition, we provide a service through our phone service where people can talk directly to a CWO. We answer 98% or 99% of all the phone calls for the community welfare services. We prioritise that line, so it gets answered immediately. If somebody wants to talk to somebody there and then at that moment, we will do that and arrange to send an officer out to the person or meet them someplace immediately. We are fully there for everybody on an ongoing and daily basis. There is no area of this country that anybody who wants to see a CWO cannot do so. They will make themselves available.

If I go a wee bit further, with the Cathaoirleach’s permission, during the weather crisis over the past while, the community welfare officers were out in the community and responded very quickly. On each occasion, we were one of the first services co-ordinated with county councils and the local representatives in those areas to make sure that we had the service there. We take having them available very seriously, and we are available; I guarantee that. Some counties do not have it, and the Cathaoirleach mentioned Laois, and, in fairness, I recognise that. However, it does not mean that people are not available to the people of Laois. It is fully available to them.