Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I share the Deputy's concern about the low number. That is why we put in considerable effort, following submissions from the Deputy's colleague, Deputy O'Reilly, and other Deputies in recent months, to bring the community welfare service here. We had a very good afternoon in the audiovisual room a few weeks back. Each community welfare service had a clinic in every part of the country for Oireachtas Members to attend, meet them and get information. We have provided considerable information to every Member in recent weeks about that contact point, the qualification, the means test and so on. I will give the Deputy's office that information again. I want people to avail of these services. We have done a lot of work in relation to feedback about the ESB and, in particular, meters - the so-called pay as you go. There is an awareness of the difficulties people are under there, from feedback from Deputies.

If the Deputy feels we need to do more in the Cork area in terms of information, we will do that. We have tried to use Oireachtas channels to provide that information; if there are other channels, we will use them.

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