Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

There has been no community welfare officer in the centre for the past several weeks. The community welfare officer in the Dún Laoghaire health centre has been out sick for the past three or four weeks, and there is no community welfare officer there either. I have heard of a number of other cases where community welfare officers are on holidays, which is perfectly understandable. The difficulty is that people are turning up at the centres but there is nobody to deal with their claims.

I met a man who has been out of work since 11 May. He has not received a payment of any kind from social welfare or the community welfare officer. He told me that but for the Society of St. Vincent de Paul he would have starved. I met another person who is out of work since January of last year who has a mortgage and is under pressure from the financial institution to pay the mortgage arrears. The person is entitled to mortgage interest relief but cannot get a community welfare officer to make a decision on it. Another woman, who was self-employed, has been trying to reach a community welfare officer for three weeks to address her requirements. I received a report stating people queued for two and a half hours at the Loughlinstown health centre this day last week to meet a community welfare officer, only to be told eventually that none would appear to deal with their problems. I do not blame the community welfare officers because I know them and realise they have done and are doing a fine job in very difficult circumstances.

There are two problems that must be urgently addressed. First, many of the people who are now attending at social welfare and community welfare offices have never had any contact with the social welfare system and never wanted to have any. It is a grim experience for them to find themselves out of work with no social welfare payment coming through and to discover the emergency service that is supposed to assist them is not available and nobody is present to deal with their problem. Second, there is a problem with the degree of pressure and stress now experienced by the community welfare service as a result of the large numbers attending and of the complicated circumstances of those who are presenting to make claims. I refer to those coming out of self-employment with varying types of social welfare records.

What will the Government do to ensure somebody who is already in bad circumstances as a result of having lost his job will receive the service to which he his entitled when he turns up at a social welfare or community welfare office? Will there be sufficient staff drafted in to ensure an adequate service is provided to meet the increasing demand? The service was dealing with approximately 150,000 unemployed people but there are now 400,000. The service needs to be adjusted to meet the new demand.

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