Paul Connaughton Snr (Galway East, Fine Gael)

I congratulate Deputy Enright on tabling this motion. Like anyone who has been around this House for a few years, I thought I would never see this day and I am sorry that it has come. I know people who have been waiting between ten and 16 weeks for a decision on their job seeker's benefit. That is a denial of a basic human right because it is fundamentally important to people for their everyday lives. It is nothing short of shameful.

I join Deputies on all sides in saying that I have never found, particularly now the pressure is on them, a more dedicated brigade of people than the community welfare officers. They work under terrible conditions. I heard the Minister announce some time ago that she was increasing the numbers. Whatever she did, it was of no use at all because they are swamped with people and she knows that as well as I do. There is a breaking point and those men and women have reached it.

That is no good, however, to the people who are waiting so long for their money. There are two problems here. If the Department cannot make the assessment and pay the claim quickly, the community welfare officers must pay out supplementary welfare. Two systems are running in parallel unnecessarily. This is the same money so there is a need to streamline this system as soon as possible.

Apart from sickness, one of the worst things to befall a man or woman is when they lose their job. Not alone do they lose their dignity, they have problems paying back loans. They know they will be able to pay back money to the credit union on loans for furniture, televisions and other small items. However, if there is not enough money coming into a household, one can imagine the pressure caused by repayments. One can see why the illegal moneylenders become so welcome in such situations. These current economic conditions are heaven to the moneylenders. We will see them sprouting up like mushrooms all over the place in the next 12 months if no action is taken on repayment conditions.

This evening I saw the starkest figure I have ever seen in my long political life. Currently, 2,250 people are on Galway County Council's housing waiting list when it usually is approximately 1,000. The astonishing aspect of this figure is that 500 people went on the waiting list in the past three months. These are the people who have had problems with job losses and receiving social welfare payments, many of whom will soon lose their homes.

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