Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

I thank Deputy Enright and all those who spoke tonight for their constructive comments on a serious issue. The motion is a comprehensive one that covers a wide range of issues and for that reason both I and the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform will speak in the debate. The Minister, Deputy Dermot Ahern, will speak tomorrow evening to address some of the issues that relate to debt legislation.

We all acknowledge the extremely hard working staff we have in social welfare offices and community welfare offices throughout the country. I accept they are under pressure. That is primarily due to the pace of the change and the rate of increase that has placed great demands on them. Despite the additional staff that have been made available, the further staff that will be going into the offices and the improved processes that have been put in place I accept there are some offices where the waiting times are too long. We are working seriously with them to address the issue. In my local office in Dún Laoghaire, staff are coming in on Saturdays to make sure they are dealing with the backlog. That is happening throughout the country to try to give people their entitlements. It is a key concern for the Government.

Deputy Noonan inquired whether the budget is about jobs; it is. It is about protecting people in jobs and the people we are concerned about tonight to get them back into work, and in the meantime to support those people who have lost their jobs. As everybody knows, unfortunately, there has been a significant increase in the live register and tomorrow we will see a further increase. Year on year it is up more than 165,000 on the February figures, which is an increase of 87%.

As has been stated, we are talking not just about the persons on the live register but their families, children, spouses, homes, and the debts they have accumulated. I assure people that right across all sectors within Government we are committed to doing our best to try to meet the needs of those people in recognition of their vulnerability. Staff are genuinely working flat out. We were fortunate in recent years that we did not have this type of problem, namely, people losing their jobs in such numbers. The staff have responded well and between the last quarter of 2007 and the final quarter of 2008 productivity of existing staff increased by 74%.

The Deputy inquired about the total number of posts that were allocated, including facilitators. A total of 266 extra staff have been allocated but of the 246 allocated to social welfare offices in recent months 223 of them are already in place and the rest will be assigned in the next couple of weeks. Various practices had to be adhered to that had been agreed with unions and it is important that we try to get through those practices quickly to facilitate the needs in the various offices. Of the 246 posts, 190 staff are being assigned to local offices, while 16 additional inspectors are being put in place in various locations around the country to undertake means testing and other work associated with the processing of jobseeker's allowance claims. Inspectors and the investigation unit are also doing valuable work on control and fraud, which is a central part of ensuring the right people are getting the money. Members may have seen evidence of that especially in the cross-Border work we are doing.

Many local offices have reached capacity, or are close to reaching capacity, in terms of the number of staff that can be accommodated in them. Therefore, as was mentioned in the House recently, a number of central decisions units are being set up around the country. There will be four of these units initially, one in Townsend Street in Dublin city centre, one in Finglas, one in Sligo and one in Carrick-on-Shannon. A total of 40 of the additional staff are being assigned to the central decisions units. A further unit is planned for Roscommon and it is expected that additional units will be set up in other areas in the coming months. The great advantage of them is that they will simply be deciding offices. Staff there will go through the paperwork and be able to make speedy decisions.

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