Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome that the Minister has agreed to look at this. It is very important. A number of Members in the Opposition have raised concerns, as have Government backbenchers, about community welfare officers and accessing them. As well as those of us in the Opposition, organisations like the Society of St. Vincent de Paul have raised concerns about accessing community welfare officers. We have been raising the issue for some time, so this really needs to be done. CWOs are going to be under huge pressure, as are people seeking their support in the days and weeks ahead. It is a pity this work has not been done by now.

I am aware of two cases. They are not from my constituency but they were brought to my attention by colleagues. In one case a lady's fridge was broken and in another the cooker was broken. They relate to two separate areas of the State. They were both told they needed to get an engineer into the house to do a report to say the cooker and fridge were broken. In one case it was a very elderly lady. If she did not contact the local Deputy, she would probably have just done without. I do not know how many community welfare officers are raising this with people but I have heard of two cases. That is alarming. The committee suggested to the Minister she would have a ten-minute online meeting with all CWOs. That is very much needed if some CWOs are suggesting to people they must get an engineer to come in, look at the fridge and say it is broken. That is frightening.

In terms of access to CWOs, in County Roscommon, for example, the Intreo office is in Roscommon town. One cannot get there from the likes of Ballaghadereen, where we have Ukrainians, Syrians and Afghanis, who all need support at different stages. The family resource centre is crying out for supports on their behalf. There is no CWO in the public health centre, which there had been previously.

Does the Minister know how many people are available to take calls on the freefone line? I know she will not be happy to hear about requests for engineer's reports. Neither am I, but I am just making the point that it is important this is looked at. I would be very worried if elderly and vulnerable people were to be given messages like that by CWOs, especially at this time of year.

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