Ulick Burke (Galway East, Fine Gael)

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this matter and for allowing me to discuss it with the Minister of State. I call on the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Deputy Mary Hanafin, to alleviate the serious difficulties within the Department which delay the provision of services to applicants who have lost their jobs in the Gort area. The mission statement of the Department of Social and Family Affairs states,"Our mission is to promote a caring society through ensuring access to income support and other services, enabling active participation, promoting social inclusion and supporting families".

The difficulty is that the Department has failed miserably to provide and deliver on its mission statement in Gort. As of 5 March, the average waiting time in Gort for the processing of various social welfare applications is ten and a half weeks. I was approached for support by a carer in desperation who applied to the Department in September 2008. Last week, I asked the Department when it was likely the person, who has cared for an elderly person since last September, will receive the carer's allowance. I was told the file is with the inspector.

Everybody realises that all people delivering services at the coalface are overwhelmed with volumes of applications. Many areas throughout the country received additional permanent or temporary staff to alleviate the backlog in these instances. In the case of Gort, this has not happened and is not likely to happen unless the Minister intervenes.

It is unfair that any person would have to wait since September 2008 until now to be told the file is still with the inspector. It is outrageous and it shows a lack of care that the Department or Minister will not intervene in this instance. As we speak, more than 1,200 people are on the live register in Gort. The conditions under which officials of the Department of Social and Family Affairs must work are poor. We have no back up services where this happens, particularly with regard to applications for means tested allowances such as carer's allowance and non-contributory old age pensions. These people receive the blunt end of the wedge. It is an uncaring society that allows this to happen and to continue.

We have an urgent need for follow-up support. The social welfare office in Gort is not accessible to the public. It is closed because the inspector cannot deal with the volume of applications and provide a service. The telephone there cannot even be answered. While this is so we will have an increasing backlog and difficulties for many people which is unfair to them. It is putting pressure on the supplementary welfare system, where other agencies must intervene and provide assistance to those people.

I know that the situation is similar across the country, but it is worse in Gort than anywhere else. If anybody has had to wait since September 2008 until now only to be told that the inspector has the file but has not dealt with it, then how can we say that we are caring for elderly people? If not for the goodwill of the carer who has worked in the intervening period without having received the carer's allowance, that person would have had to be hospitalised at a greater cost. There is a need for the Minister to provide additional backup services on a temporary or permanent basis to alleviate the problems and to provide access for the applicants to receive their entitlements.

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