Dáil debates
Tuesday, 3 February 2009
Priority Questions
Departmental Staff.
2:30 pm
Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Question 101: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if additional staff will be deployed to social welfare offices in each region to deal with the increase in social welfare applications; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3535/09]
Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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With the increase in the number of people applying for unemployment payments in particular, staff in social welfare offices have been working extremely hard to process claims as quickly as possible.
Productivity has increased significantly. Nearly 155,000 claims were processed in local offices in the last quarter of 2008. That includes the one family payment. This compares with less than 89,000 in the last quarter of 2007, representing an increase of 74%.
I know that processing times in some areas are still too long and I assure Deputies that we are doing our best to reduce them. I appreciate that becoming unemployed is a very difficult time in a person's life and that they need to get access to financial and other supports as quickly as possible. To this end, extra staff have already been appointed to social welfare offices, while more are also on the way. 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. A total of 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. Work is ongoing to complete the assignment of the remaining 39 staff as quickly as possible.
In order to maximise the number of people paid before Christmas, a temporary central decisions unit was set up in Dublin city centre for three weeks at Christmas. Following on from the success of this initiative, four more such units are being set up in Dublin, Sligo, Finglas and Carrick-on-Shannon. Each unit 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. That brings to 202 the number of additional staff being assigned to local offices and claim processing roles.
A number of process improvement initiatives are also being implemented with a view to reducing processing times. For example, under a new initiative introduced in Dundalk last December, 40% of applicants for jobseeker's payments are having their claims taken and decided upon during an appointment with a deciding officer. This initiative will be extended to other offices on a phased basis.
Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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I am not particularly interested in the average processing times the Minister has been giving out in the past number of weeks. What I am interested in is when the 202 additional staff she referred to will be in situ and when every social welfare office in the country will be processing claims within the average time about which the Minister likes to speak. Throughout the country, in Navan, Tuam, Clonakilty, Tullow — I could name one town after another — people are waiting 11 and 12 weeks and they are getting into more and more debt as they wait. There is a knock-on effect which the Minister has not dealt with or spoken about yet because she continues to tell people that if they are being delayed they can go to community welfare officers. Those same community welfare officers are inundated with people applying, particularly in the areas where the dole queues are as long as they are now. In respect of the 202 staff the Minister is talking about, I want to know the exact date each of them will be in situ.
Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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As I indicated, a number of these staff are already in place. As all of these staff——
Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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——are coming from other Departments, processes have to be gone through to ensure they are placed because none of them is being recruited from outside the public sector. I appreciate the necessity of ensuring that people are put into position as quickly as possible and to have them trained. As I indicated, in the next two to three weeks there will be an additional 19 and we are hopeful the next 39 will be in place very quickly after that. We are keeping the position under review to determine the additional staff that are needed.
The Deputy spoke about towns throughout the country where delays of 12 and 13 weeks were being experienced. In fact, out of all the offices, of which there are more than 60, only eight have waiting times of over ten weeks. While I accept that is a particularly long period, one could also consider the likes of Ballymun where one can get jobseeker's benefit in just over a week or jobseeker's allowance in just over three weeks.
James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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What about Balbriggan or Swords?
Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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In Finglas one can get the jobseeker's allowance in 1.2 weeks or just over two and a half weeks for jobseeker's benefit. We should acknowledge those.
Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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We should acknowledge Coolock, which is also a very busy office, where in one and a half weeks one can get jobseeker's allowance and jobseeker's benefit in just over two weeks.
Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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I will allow a brief supplementary.
Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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It is not true to say, therefore, that throughout the country——
Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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If the Minister would allow we will hear a brief supplementary from Deputy Enright.
Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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There is a geographical spread throughout the country in terms of this problem. Is the Minister telling me that the advice she is giving to people in Ballyconnell, where they are waiting just under 11 weeks, is to go to Ballymun to apply for their social welfare benefit? If someone with children to feed has been waiting 11 weeks, it is irrelevant that some people elsewhere in the country only have to wait a week or two. That is not dealing with the problem. It is not good enough for the Minister to say she is hopeful that more staff will be in situ. We will hear figures tomorrow that are expected to indicate that 300,000 will be unemployed. The Minister must deal with this problem. We brought it to her attention last October but she only acted in December. We want to see decisive action. This matter needs to be dealt with.
Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy obviously did not listen to the answer where I indicated that from the summer onwards additional staff were put in.
Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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An additional 31, followed by 115, many of whom have been put in place or are currently being put in place in the areas where there is greatest demand.
Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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There are tens of thousands unemployed — 330 a day.
Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I appreciate that nobody wants to be left waiting but nobody is left waiting for their money——
Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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——because the community welfare officer pays within the week.
Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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They are left waiting.
Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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It is wrong to give the impression to people losing their jobs or those who are applying that no matter where they go in the country, they will be waiting for weeks. There are thousands of workers in social welfare offices who are genuinely working flat out and our aim is to ensure average waiting times in all the offices are brought down.
Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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The Minister is not achieving that aim.
Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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The Minister can talk about it but she is not achieving it.
Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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——by ensuring we put in the staff as quickly as possible to meet the current demand from people who genuinely need that money.