Dáil debates

Wednesday, 7 March 2018

Topical Issue Debate

Social Welfare Offices

2:05 pm

Photo of Willie O'DeaWillie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for giving me the opportunity to raise the very important issue of 58 social welfare branch managers in the State. I believe they are being treated very badly by the Department. They have not had an increase in remuneration since 2008. In the interim they have had to take on a lot of extra responsibilities, which involved the employment of extra staff, improvements to their offices and so on.

During this same period their income dropped as the number of people on the live register dropped. When they last received an increase in 2008, the Department promised it would provide extra remuneration for the extra responsibilities taken on by the branch managers. That process continued for nearly ten years until last October. Every time they asked the Department when a new contract would be issued or when an increase in remuneration would happen, they were told "Soon". The Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection has a very peculiar definition of the word "soon". I believe this is a disgraceful way to treat people who have provided diligent service, some of them for many decades, for the Department and for their communities. When the process of increasing the remuneration was eventually looked at last October under the chairmanship of Kevin Duffy, the former chairman of the Labour Court, the remuneration was agreed and other issues were to be resolved in January. In January, however, the branch managers were suddenly told that the Department could no longer negotiate with the representative organisation, the Branch Managers' Association, BMA, for two reasons. The first reason was that advice from the Attorney General indicated there was a potential problem with competition law, which prevented the Department from negotiating directly with the BMA. I do not know what this potential problem involves. The Government, through the relevant Government Minister, negotiates with the Irish Medical Organisation, IMO, all the time as a representative organisation for doctors. The Government also negotiates with the Irish Postmasters' Union as the representative body of postmasters. In the case of the branch managers, the Department says it is being advised by the Attorney General that potentially a situation may have arisen as a result of interpretation of competition law that would necessitate the Department engaging and negotiating with each of the 58 branch managers individually.

The managers have also been told there is a problem with procurement. The relevant law may involve putting the contracts out to tender. Unofficially and through the grapevine, the branch managers have heard that the Department plans to close 20 of the 58 offices. I hope the Minister will clarify this in her response, one way or the other. There is a problem here in that all of these people have made a significant investment in their properties. The older contracts that precede 2008 were open ended. People understood they would be in their offices for life or up to the age of 65. This has been their investment. They invested to create a livelihood for themselves. If any of the branch managers had envisaged that this situation would arise, they would not have made their premises available to the Department in the first place. Will the Minister ensure that the first part of the agreement, the increased remuneration package, is put in place? Negotiations, or discussions, can then take place around the other matters. There are a number of other matters to be resolved. These people are at break point financially. Their income has been dropping while their expenses have increased dramatically over the past number of years. These managers are not, generally, people who complain. They have been in touch with us because they have no place else to go.

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