Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Politicians sometimes exaggerate to make a particular point. I will deliberately refrain from doing so. Instead, I will set out my point by reading from a letter that some of us have received from a person who continues to serve this country in a very important role. He speaks for everyone in the letter, which reads:

I am close to a complete breakdown due to a system which is clearly even more overrun than it was prior to the changes, changes which I am guessing were introduced in an effort to improve an already troubled setup, but which are a disaster. I would like to ask at this point if you may have been aware of these difficulties which many of the population of this country are faced with and, if so, if you might be willing or able to step in to attempt to rectify the endless and needless stresses which this puts on me and on my family and on many many others throughout the country. What will it take in order for our services and systems to stop pushing already struggling and suffering citizens to despair and desperation? Is it going to take an example like this on Joe Duffy to highlight the mess the system is in?

This person has paid his taxes and made his contributions. His case is a genuine one. When he asked for a bit of help from the system, he found he was entitled to nothing. It is an awful story. There is more to it. I cannot believe it.

People were left hanging on phones. How many additional people were asked to deal with this? I want to know whether the officials were in favour of this at all. Was there a big change in the Minister's Department? Was that part of the problem? We are talking about appointments of assistant secretaries general, etc. We left these people high and dry. This is an insurance-based system. People are entitled to their money. The Minister should not tell people to go down to the community welfare office, where means tests are used and people have to sit looking in. It is just not right. I have met people who are destitute. I think it is a disgrace. A system should not be changed like this ever again. Why was it changed at all? We should never change something that is doing all right. This is the first time I have ever got angry with the Minister. I think she is doing a good job but this was an utter failure. It is rare for me to use words like that. This was a shambles of the highest order.

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