Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Like previous speakers, I am concerned about a number of matters in the context of Christmas coming. I want to wish everyone a happy Christmas. There are many families who find this time of year very hard. In my own area of Carlow the staff in the social welfare office do a great job but I firmly believe the office needs more staff. The issue that is raised with me every day is that when people ring the office the staff will send out a form but there is no communication. As I said, the staff are doing a great job but we need to look at staffing there. Hand on heart, we need to look at the reduction in services provided by citizen's information offices. There are people out there who need to get forms, to get help with filling out forms, and who need more information. Could that be addressed?

An older lady rang me today. She was delighted that she had a medical card. I am raising this while the Taoiseach is here. She was delighted that her medical card meant that she would not have to pay but she went for an eye test for her driving licence and was charged for it. There is so much misinformation and I ask the Taoiseach to look at that.

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