Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Taoiseach for providing the information on the parliamentary liaison unit, which, as we know, provides detailed information on matters upcoming in the Dáil and Seanad and carries out a number of other functions. I want to raise with the Taoiseach a particular issue pertaining to a service which has been providing a similar service to the public, namely, the Citizens Information service, which over some decades now has been providing a very important face-to-face service across our communities but about which we are hearing increasing concerns. We have seen changes to the service, the closure of face-to-face offices, a failure to reopen offices after Covid and a whole-scale movement online of these vital information services. Indeed, over the summer, this issue was raised extensively on "Liveline", as people around the country spoke of their concern about hearing their local services were being closed.

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In my constituency, Dublin Bay South, we held a public meeting in Rathmines about the failure to reopen the local office there. Our local Labour Party councillor, Mary Freehill, and I both had extensive engagement with members of the public about their concerns on this issue. We had a big turnout at a town hall meeting we held in Rathmines and we heard from those who had been volunteers with the service, and more importantly, from those who had been using the service, including clients of the service and those who had benefited from the face-to-face access to information that it had provided to them. A whole-scale movement online goes against the ethos of the Citizens Information centres and service. Labour's Frank Cluskey had originally insisted on the establishment of Citizens Information services in order that people would not effectively be dependent on Dáil Deputies' clinics to find out their rights and to be able to engage with Departments and local authorities. Now we have a situation where we are seeing face-to-face and community services being stripped down and closed down. I appeal to the Taoiseach and to the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys, to ensure there is sufficient resourcing to enable the maintenance and retention of face-to-face community services, such as Citizens Information services of this kind, which have provided such an important bridge to many local communities and individuals in accessing information about their rights and the sort of entitlements they have from the State. Without this sort of face-to-face service, many disadvantaged individuals and households are really affected and feel they have nowhere to turn.

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