Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have ambitions to do certain things. I hope we will be able to work together to get the support to be able to do them. Again, this is not about my ambitions but about the need to reflect on the two or three areas or groups of people who are most marginalised. I would like to make sure that we set in train a process in the next few years to improve their lot significantly.

The issue of complaints is an odd one. The Deputy knows how disruptive the changes to the illness benefit scheme that were introduced last year were and I have no doubt that is the reason for the increase in the number of complaints. I do not know that for sure but I suspect that is why we saw a significant increase in complaints last year. We have 6,500 people working in the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection. They are an incredible bunch. I have never met people with more empathy and understanding of people's plights when they are down on their luck. While people are entitled-----

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