Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I would like some clarification on that. I may, as I said, have it wrong and I put a health warning on what I am saying in that regard as well.

Broadly speaking, we welcome the Bill. We will examine it on Committee Stage. We recognise those of us in Opposition are hampered in the types of amendments we can put forward but thems the rules, as they say. We will try to push the envelope as best we can in Opposition to try to promulgate on behalf of the people we represent. If some of the processes I have referenced for applications for illness-related payments could be looked at and streamlined, that would be welcome. There is also the gap that still exists with access to community welfare officers in certain parts of the country. There are people who could be availing of exceptional needs payments and urgent needs payments but they are not because they do not have access to that face-to-face contact with CWOs on the ground. I am lucky that in my area we have exceptional CWOs but there are parts of the country where there are still gaps. There are still people who - and I do not mean this in any condescending or patronising way - will not interface with technology or if they have to go on the phone find it challenging because they want to sit down and give context to the case they are making. We should not lose that in any way, if that can be helped.

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