Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I proposed to take Question Nos. 6 and 10 together.

The delivery of crucial community welfare services to meet the challenges and needs of citizens across the country is a priority for me and my Department. I want to be absolutely clear that the Department continues to provide access to local community welfare officers in our public offices across the country and will continue to do so. Community welfare staff also attend local clinics and are available to attend at other locations including the client's home, if necessary. In addition, staffing levels have been maintained in the community welfare service nationwide in recent years, even during times when demands on the service decreased significantly. This reflects my commitment to continue to support the delivery of locally based services to citizens.

There are currently more than 400 staff working in the community welfare service throughout the country, with a permanent community welfare officer presence available at all times during working hours in over 50 of the Department's public offices. These staff have processed and paid 66,000 additional needs payments to the end of September, an increase of about 60% on 2021 levels, as well as managing applications for other supplementary welfare allowance schemes.

My Department has introduced a number of measures this year with the aim of increasing the capacity of the service and modernising and improving how it operates. These include the introduction of a national community welfare service freephone line, meaning clients do not have to attend the office in person to make a claim, the rostering of staff to ensure there is a full-time community welfare officer present in over 50 offices nationwide and the establishment of a back-office support team to take on the more routine administrative tasks associated with claim processing, freeing up front-line community welfare officers to meet customers and process their claims. In addition, the Department is well advanced in the development of an online claims option. These changes mean that the community welfare service is in a stronger position than it would otherwise have been to respond to the significant 60% increase in service demand. For example, 75% of calls to the national freephone line are dealt with and the claim decided without the client ever having to attend a public office.

The Department is also taking steps to allocate additional staff to the community welfare service function having received an increased staffing allocation during the Estimates process. I expect recruitment for these posts to begin shortly. It is the Department's plan to allocate an additional 80 staff to this service.

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