Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I compliment Deputy Enright on tabling this important motion. People are hurting at the moment and they are feeling the pressure. People who have never gone near a social welfare office or a community welfare officer are finding it strange and difficult and are upset at the length of time it takes to process their cases. Even before the recession, there were problems last year getting some benefits from the Department. It would take weeks for claims to be processed and now, with the recession, it takes even longer, putting further pressure on the community welfare officers who must pay out money in the meantime.

There was much talk last year of taking staff from the Department of Health and Children and placing them in the Department of Social and Family Affairs. They say that a week in politics is a long time but a year in this country is not a long time. This time last year everything was booming and now we have a depression and people are feeling the pressure. The community welfare officers are working very hard under a lot of pressure. I see it in my own town where we have massive unemployment now. Many people were working in the hotel industry but, with the decline in numbers visiting and hotels under pressure, they are on a three-day week or using the social welfare system.

Even the social welfare offices are under pressure. More resources must be put in place for social welfare offices; they need more staff and support. I tried to contact a local officer today about a case I had yesterday. He told me he is at breaking point and that he is unable to cope. He is at it seven days a week because he feels for those people he sees coming in. He knows they are under pressure and that he must deal with their cases immediately. He does not want them to have to wait because he knows these people are under pressure. He told me he was seeing people he had never seen in his life and he has been working in the Department for 30 years. These people have never been in a social welfare office or seen a community welfare officer. He is trying to do the right thing by them, by the Minister and by the Department to ensure that they are looked after.

I ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs not to allow what is happening in the west — the centralisation of the medical card distribution to a centre in Dublin. We have enough agencies and eejits in Dublin we cannot deal with already. We cannot deal with these eejits. At least we can deal with local people at home. I do not want to see discretion taken away from the community welfare officers because if a person needs to talk to an eejit in Dublin, he or she will not answer the phone and there will be more problems. If I table a question, I will be told the Minister has no responsibility. Keep that service in the regions, in the counties and with the community welfare officers.

See this speech in context