Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)

I would like to ask a brief supplementary question about an issue I have already raised. I refer to the demands being imposed on the social welfare service and the community welfare service by the lengthening queues. Will more staff be deployed from within the resources of the Department of Social and Family Affairs to deal with such problems? The community welfare service is at breaking point. The Minister's comments about the integration of services have tempted me to ask questions about the issue of independence. I will not go into that now. Community welfare officers make sure that applicants are likely to be eligible for the social welfare benefit for which they have applied, and are waiting for, before they agree to make supplementary payments to such people. When they sanction the making of a payment, it is made within a short space of time. By contrast, people in Boyle, for example, currently have to wait 19 weeks to receive jobseeker's allowance payments. I suggest that the Minister should examine whether the manner in which the community welfare service operates can be applied in her Department. Community welfare officers do not sanction payments if they are not sure that the Department of Social and Family Affairs will make a social welfare payment in the end.

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