Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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Question 106: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the processing time it takes for each individual social welfare office to deal with a claim for jobseeker's benefit; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3300/09]

Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 107: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the measures that have been put in place by her Department to deal with the increased number of people applying for unemployment assistance; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3282/09]

Tom Sheahan (Kerry South, Fine Gael)
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Question 108: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the number of individuals on a national basis and by local social welfare office waiting for their application in respect of jobseeker's allowance to be processed; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3321/09]

Pádraic McCormack (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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Question 109: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the average time it takes to process a claim in respect of jobseeker's allowance; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3292/09]

Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Question 113: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if the 115 people, promised in December 2008, have been fully deployed to social welfare offices to deal with the rising number of social welfare applicants; if they have been fully trained; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3277/09]

Michael Noonan (Limerick East, Fine Gael)
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Question 121: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the processing time it takes for each individual social welfare office to deal with a claim for jobseeker's allowance; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3305/09]

Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)
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Question 123: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the basis on which staff allocations to social welfare offices are being made; and the reason there continues to be a wide variation in the processing times for jobseeker payments among different offices. [3229/09]

Dinny McGinley (Donegal South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 128: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the average time it takes to process a claim for jobseeker's benefit; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3296/09]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)
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Question 134: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs her target date for the full deployment of the extra 115 staff promised for local social welfare offices. [3222/09]

John O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 135: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the number of individuals on a national basis and by local social welfare office waiting for their application for jobseeker's benefit to be processed; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3313/09]

Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Question 153: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the steps being taken to reduce the waiting times for people seeking to access the jobseeker's allowance; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3197/09]

Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)
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Question 315: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs when the 115 staff who were committed to welfare exchanges in view of the increased workload will be allocated; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [2980/09]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 336: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if she has proposals or plans to expedite procedures in order to enable more prompt payment of unemployment benefits or allowances thereby minimising hardship to those who find themselves unemployed or otherwise dependent on a social welfare payment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3530/09]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 106 to 109, inclusive, 113, 121, 123, 128, 134, 135, 153, 315 and 336 together.

The average processing times for claims processed in December was two weeks for jobseeker's benefit and five weeks for jobseeker's allowance. That is the average nationally but there are fluctuations between offices. Processing times can vary from office to office for a number of reasons, including the extent of the increased number of claims, the number of staff vacancies, the duration of such vacancies and the turnover of staff in the office, which impacts on the overall level of experience in the office. I am making a table available, Table 1, showing the processing times in weeks at every local office for claims decided in December, the latest month for which such figures are available.

The conditions of entitlement vary between the two jobseeker schemes and involve, among other things, the need to establish the person's social insurance record and to assess their means where appropriate. I am also making available a table (Table 2) showing the number of claims awaiting a decision as at 24 January 2009.

Staff in social welfare offices have been working extremely hard to process the increasing volume of claims for jobseeker's payments as quickly as possible. Productivity has increased significantly. Nearly 155,000 claims were processed in local offices in the last quarter of 2008, including the one parent family payment. This compares with less than 89,000 in the last quarter of 2007, representing an increase of 74%.

I accept that processing times in some areas are still too long and I would like to assure Deputies that we are doing our best to reduce them. I know that becoming unemployed is a very difficult time in a person's life and that he or she needs to get access to financial and other supports as quickly as possible.

As I outlined in the answer to the first priority question, the Department has taken a number of steps to improve processing times for jobseeker's payments. An additional 31 staff were assigned to 15 local offices following a review of the number of staffing levels in local offices in May and June last year.

Following a further review late last year, it was decided to put an extra 115 staff in place. Some 57 of these have already taken up work, while start dates have been agreed for a further 19 staff over the next two to three weeks. It is expected that all of the posts will be filled by late February. Appropriate training will be given to new staff on their assignment to the local offices.

Four central decisions units are also being set up in Dublin city centre, Sligo, Finglas and Carrick-on-Shannon, each of which will have ten staff.

In addition to this, a further 16 social welfare inspectors are being assigned to various locations throughout the country to do means and other work associated with processing claims for jobseeker's payments. This brings to 202 the number of additional staff being assigned to local offices and claim processing roles.

At the same time, the procedures and processes associated with claims for jobseeker payments are being reviewed and a number of process improvement initiatives are being implemented. For example, the Dundalk initiative involves applicants for jobseeker's payments having their claims taken and decided upon during an appointment with a deciding officer. Some 40% of jobseeker's applications are now being decided upon this way in the Dundalk office. Having been well received by customers, this initiative will be extended to other offices on a phased basis.

The Department's management services unit has responsibility for carrying out staffing assessments for all business areas in the Department, including local offices. The administrative productivity training method of work measurement is used to identify, measure and quantify workloads and to determine staffing requirements for all clerical-administrative work. To determine the number of additional staff required to deal with the increasing live register, exercises based on the template were carried out. These have informed the allocation of existing staff resources to the local offices.

We will continue to keep staffing under review to ensure that people who find themselves in the difficult situation of losing their jobs can have their applications processed as quickly as possible.

Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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It needs more than a review.

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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The Minister's answer does nothing to address the original priority question, which was why one can get looked after in a matter of ten days in Ballymun, but elsewhere in the country it could take 11 weeks. Before Christmas, I asked the Minister why, knowing that a contract was up with the local provider in Balbriggan, no provision was made for people to claim unemployment benefit when that contract ended. People are being sent to Gardiner Street and Coolock for welfare. Using the citizens advice bureaux as a temporary measure is not delivering for the people of Balbriggan. I might remind the Minister that Balbriggan is a town of 25,000 people, which is strategically designated for growth. I just do not understand it.

In Swords, people must queue in the rain outside a portakabin to claim unemployment benefit. The Minister is not providing for those people and she does not seem to have any plans. She is aware of these situations months in advance yet here we are listening to waffle about what might be happening around the country.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy knows about waffle.

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Putting more than 200 new staff in place is not waffle.

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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They are not in place.

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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These are important people who are ensuring that claims are dealt with as speedily as possible.

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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They are not dealing with claims. Those are aspirations.

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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We have also identified priority areas, including Balbriggan, for the Office of Public Works which acquires premises on our behalf. That will ensure that premises can be made available.

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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There are empty offices all over the place. This is nonsense.

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The OPW is actively working on our behalf to ensure not only that we will have staff, but also that we will have facilities to deal with people with the dignity and courtesy they deserve.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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The House should be silent for Deputy Shortall's question.

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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In her reply, the Minister made no reference whatsoever to what is happening in branch offices. That is where the longest waiting times are, whether for unemployment benefit or unemployment assistance. It is all very well talking about having extra staff at local offices but that will do nothing to improve the situation in branch offices. What does the Minister intend to do in order to reduce waiting times to a reasonable period?

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy is correct in saying that of the eight most difficult waiting times in offices, seven are in branch offices. The reason for that, however, is because the decisions are made in the parent office and extra staffing is going into those parent offices.

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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The Taoiseach is getting a pay cut.

Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Can the Minister explain why she has allowed the processing application time to take over ten weeks in some cases? Given that everybody — perhaps with the exception of the Government — knew that massive unemployment was coming down the line, with significant additional numbers applying for the jobseeker's allowance, how did it get to this state with such lengthy waiting lists?

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Whereas I accept there are some offices — just eight in total, I think — where there are quite long waiting times of about ten weeks, in very many other offices the process takes just over a week or maybe two weeks.

It is important we acknowledge that.

Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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That is no consolation to anyone waiting 12 weeks.

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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In those areas where there is particular pressure, additional staff have been allocated and are being trained. More staff are also moving across from other Departments. The fact we are not recruiting people from outside the public sector but that the people are moving from other offices to our Department will help to speed up the process. We have also requested the Department of Finance to provide us with access to additional staff so that as claims come in they can be dealt with quickly.

Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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What is the Minister doing about the knock-on effects for community welfare officers? Due to the fact that many people around the country must wait so long, they are going to community welfare officers. Those officers are in the same position and are unable to deal with their workloads, because people continue to come to them for normal payments along with others who are waiting for supplementary and mortgage payments.

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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It is important to acknowledge that even in those areas where there are delays in processing the applications, people who are in need of money are not left without it. The community welfare officers pay within a week and continue to pay until the claim is processed.

Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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That is nonsense.

Emmet Stagg (Kildare North, Labour)
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The Minister must be joking.

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I appreciate that community welfare officers are under difficulty, but there is a strong message to send, that even though there are delays in processing in a few areas around the country, nobody in need of money is left without it.

Emmet Stagg (Kildare North, Labour)
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That is nonsense.

Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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I have an e-mail here from a community welfare officer that contradicts what the Minister is saying. Community welfare officers throughout the country are inundated with people. Some people are unable to pay their bills and are defaulting on their loans because they are unable to get a payment from the Department. The Minister said earlier her responsibility was only for making payments. She has no feeling for the people who are waiting for payments. If she believes her responsibility is only to make the payments, she should get a job in the Paymaster General's office and step down as Minister.

Deputies:

Hear, hear.

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy has referred to two different questions. With regard to carers, the point I made was that the Department of Social and Family Affairs makes the payment to them, but it is the Department of Health and Children that provides respite care, home help, etc.

Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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I was talking about jobseeker's allowance.

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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My Department is responsible for ensuring that the €20 billion of taxpayers' money goes to the most vulnerable in society. That is a budget we aim to protect.