Joe Flaherty (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the Minister of State, Deputy Smyth, standing in for the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys, who is unavoidably absent this evening but I ask that the senior Minister would respond to me directly in the fullness of time on the important points I will raise. She, like the Minister of State, is passionate about rural Ireland and appreciates more than most the huge voluntary and community ethos that underpins our rural communities.

I am concerned by a series of unnecessary burdens on the community employment, CE, structure, that are deeply worrying and that are threatening the viability and continuation of many of these schemes. Following two major leaks of sensitive information, the Department of Social Protection quite rightly rolled out a new web portal called Welfare Partners for CE schemes in 2017. This was to enable both sponsors and supervisors of CE schemes to transact information swiftly and securely with the Department. The system uses the same means of State-backed authentication that allows select users to submit information using their advanced electronic signatures to both the Revenue Commissioners and the Companies Registration Office without the need for paper.

Up until 29 April this year, the system cleverly allowed supervisors to prepare and upload reports but subsequently required sponsors to log in and review the data before submitting, in a two-tier process, to the Department. I understand there was an initial transition period and supervisors were advised that change was coming in November last year. Supervisors flagged concerns and reservations but, alas, all fell on deaf ears. Now we have a truly laughable and Killinaskully-esque situation. It is now mandatory for all CE schemes to use the online secure portal, which is fair enough. However, supervisors are still required to hand-carry paper documents, solicit handwritten signatures from sponsors and rescan them. Then the scheme supervisors have to log in and electronically sign the same documents again. It makes absolutely no sense for the Department to decline an electronic signature, which has strong means of authentication, and accept a scan of a handwritten signature that may not have authenticity. This unnecessary situation is particularly burdensome for small, rural CE schemes. I was alerted to this by local councillor, Mick Cahill, who works closely with the Carrickedmond and Legan CE scheme, chaired by Philip Butler. That scheme is extremely fortunate to have a conscientious and dedicated supervisor in Stephen Kelly.

On 22 April, the Department directed that sponsors rather than scheme supervisors, as had been the case heretofore, were required to upload all supporting documentation for payroll with effect from 29 April. This alteration is a clear and further dismantling of the existing two-tiered process employed in the Welfare Partners portal and an unnecessary transfer of an office administration duty from the supervisor to the voluntary sponsor. What started out as a very good idea has been hijacked. The new system runs contrary to the Department's own policies on community employment corporate governance processes which were issued to CE schemes in 2019.

Why did the Department abruptly and unilaterally implement changes that transfer duties from a Government-funded agency to a local volunteer? Why is the Department refusing to engage with supervisors and CE schemes on this important matter?

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