Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

I greatly acknowledge and thank the 701 community welfare officers throughout the country and the 183 supporting clerical staff, including, for example, porters. The service is delivered through 1,000 locations throughout the country. There are nine appeals officers in the community welfare service who deal with SWA appeals and there are 59 superintendents.

This has been discussed over many years. It has arisen at conferences, it has been the subject of many discussions between officials and it is no surprise. It has been in the system for a long time. The Government has finally copperfastened its thinking on it and taken the decision to move ahead with it now.

In thanking all of those community welfare officers, I want to give an absolute assurance that there will be no diminution in their discretion, that there will be full consultations with them as we go through this process and they will be listened to carefully, that, obviously, terms and conditions and employment issues will be worked out with the unions who will be kept fully involved in the process as it progresses, and that they have nothing to fear from this move. It is an opportunity in many ways to enhance the service which they give.

When this service started it was a fairly small safety net. It has now grown into a €700 million scheme and it has moved far beyond its original intention. It is helping welfare customers and the welfare Department is the line Department that should have the responsibility for helping welfare customers. It is for those reasons that this makes sense.

The main message I want to send in answering these parliamentary questions is that the community welfare officers have nothing to fear. It offers the chance for enhancement. Full terms and conditions of course will be guaranteed.

I see no great need for changes of locations. Those locations will always be needed, but the detail of that must be worked out with management. I see there being no interference in the community welfare officers' flexibility and discretion because they are at the coalface and help so many people. Their tangential work for the Department of Health and Children can continue.

I have spent much of my time in office over the years fighting major battles trying to move civil servants out into agencies. On at least three or four occasions I fought considerable battles, on the floor of this House and elsewhere. I was told that I was diminishing their Civil Service status and pushing them into agencies and further away from the centre. We are doing the opposite here. We are taking them back from an agency into a Civil Service Department in which they have a bright future. They will be fully consulted and all the issues with the unions will be fully thrashed out in good time to proceed with this.

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