Noel Harrington (Cork South West, Fine Gael)

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this issue for debate as a Topical Issue. It is a matter of vital importance to the population of Castletownbere on the remote Beara Peninsula. The town has a population of approximately 1,500 with perhaps twice or three times that number living on the peninsula this social welfare office serves. The office serves not only the population of the town, but also the residents of Bear Island, Dursey Island, Alhiles, Eyeries, Garish, Ardgroom and Adrigole, which are very small and remote rural parishes.

I have been informed that Department of Social Protection is proposing to cease operating its district office in Castletownbere on a weekly basis and reduce this service to once a month. Castletownbere is on the periphery of the Department of the Social Protection network and all I am asking is that one official of that Department would travel the 30 miles from Bantry to Castletownbere once a week rather than asking the clients from Castletownbere and the Beara Peninsula to travel every week to Bantry, which is more than 30 miles from Castletownbere and may be more than 45 miles from other parts of the peninsula. With two offshore islands also involved, it is quite a challenge for those on social protection.

Public transport is sporadic to say the least and to use the bus service provided by Bus Éireann would entail a two-day journey. Bus Éireann sends one bus into Castletownbere each weekday at 12.30 p.m. and it leaves half an hour later for Bantry. It is not practicable for those living on the peninsula who access social protection services to use the public transport service. The private bus services that operate only go a few times a week.

The clients of the Department of Social Protection live on a week-to-week basis and not a month-to-month basis. The Department administers more than 50 different schemes and the clients who attend the office in Castletownbere are varied. The information they receive there is very helpful and necessary. Castletownbere has high unemployment rates. CSO figures for the general Bantry area, including Castletownbere, indicate that it has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country. The nature of the work in Castletownbere is often seasonal and access to the social protection office in that regard would be necessary after people finish work in the winter in the sea fishing area or in the summer in the tourism sector. Accessing unemployment benefit and information is very important for them. Travelling 30 or 40 miles or only doing this on a monthly basis will not work.

Castletownbere does not have a citizens' advice bureau and we have no family resource centre in the town, although there is one in one of the outlying parishes in Adrigole. Not only does the loss of this office impact on the direct social protection service in terms of payments for unemployment assistance or benefit, we are also losing a vital information service. The Beara Peninsula is approximately the size of County Louth, although not obviously in population terms.

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