Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister, Deputy Humphreys, sends her apologies for not being able to be here. The Citizens Information Board, CIB, under the aegis of the Department of Social Protection, is the statutory body with responsibility for the Citizens Information service, CIS. The Citizens Information Board provides funding to 22 companies in order to deliver services on its behalf. This includes eight CIS companies that operate a national network of Citizens Information centres, including south Leinster CIS which encompasses County Wicklow.

Wicklow town Citizens Information centre initially opened an office in August 2005. In March 2020, as the Deputy outlined, the board of south Leinster CIS made the decision to close the Wicklow office as part of its Covid-19 response. The decision to close any office within the CIS network is a matter for the relevant CIS board as they are responsible for their region's service delivery. The Wicklow office has remained closed since March 2020. As the Deputy has outlined, the valuable work carried out by the Wicklow office has continued during this period and the one full-time information officer, previously based in Wicklow Citizens Information centre, has worked supporting citizens of Wicklow from the Bray Citizens Information office since March 2020. It is not ideal and obviously not in the same location but that support is continuing.

On 6 December 2021, the south Leinster CIS regional manager on behalf of the board informed CIB that they had made the decision to discontinue services in their Wicklow town office due to health and safety concerns. The board had undertaken an internal assessment of the premises and identified that they were unsuitable under a number of areas. A temporary office location was identified in Wicklow town; however, the board of south Leinster CIS made the decision not to use this office, while looking to procure a longer term arrangement.

An alternative office space in the centre of Wicklow town was considered in 2021 but these premises would require substantial financial investment before they could be utilised. Planning permission for the change of use of these premises was granted in late 2021 and consequently had not been factored into CIB's 2022 budget allocation estimates process. CIB receives an annual funding allocation from the Department of Social Protection. Therefore, CIB was not in a financial position at the time to commit to any projects that extended into the next financial year as they had not been included in their estimates to the Department.

However, both CIB and the board of south Leinster CIS are committed to the continued ongoing delivery of high-quality services to the people of County Wicklow. Services have continued to be offered throughout the pandemic and will continue to be available through a combination of offices in Arklow and Bray for drop-in appointments and phone-based services. The latter have been particularly successful in ensuring south Leinster CIS has continued to support the people of County Wicklow over what has been a very difficult delivery environment since March 2020.

On the discussion around funding, I note that the Department of Social Protection and CIB are currently holding discussions in respect of funding required to complete the new premises development for Wicklow town. These discussions are taking place in the context of CIB's 2022 budget allocation and other competing priorities, taking into account all of the reasons it could not be considered until now.

See this speech in context