Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

Since we were last here there were three issues outstanding that were going to affect the processing of claims and they were three issues that were outstanding with the union at the time. One of them related to setting up an appointments system. The second related to making decisions speedily, particularly on jobseeker's benefit, and to being able to give people an indication immediately on whether they would qualify. The third related to allowing the branch managers make the decision, which was part of the agreement that was reached last year.

Following our discussions and, indeed, the highlighting of the CPSU issue here, agreement was reached on the first two of those. That is working well and efficiently and has been in the best interests of both the clients and staff. No progress has been made yet on allowing the branch officers make the decisions. That is an outstanding issue which must now go to the Labour Court.

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