Dáil debates

Tuesday, 16 February 2010

Adjournment Debate

Departmental Staff.

8:00 pm

Photo of John BrowneJohn Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Through the Acting Chairman I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me the opportunity to raise this issue.

The busiest social welfare local office in the country is in Cork and the second busiest is in Anne Street, Wexford. There is a major difference in the two offices. The social welfare local office in Cork has twice the number of staff as the social welfare local office in Wexford. Approximately 21,000 claims are being processed in the social welfare offices in Wexford which leads to its own problems in trying to get decisions. While the office has an excellent staff and at present may not be answering TDs queries, I have always found the staff in the social welfare offices throughout County Wexford to be very helpful and supportive and going beyond the call of duty to ensure people's entitlements were dealt with as efficiently and as quickly as possible.

Like many other counties, Wexford was very much dependent on the building industry which is in a state of collapse. As a result a huge number of applications for job seekers' allowance has been made to the Department of Social and Family Affairs in Wexford town by PAYE workers and small building contractors, electricians and all those who were self-employed in the building industry. Many are waiting months on end for assessments and decisions which is causing severe hardship to individuals and families.

I ask the Minister to explain the reason for the low level of staff in the Wexford office dealing with practically the same number of applications as the Cork office. The Minister must act to ensure the Wexford office gets adequate staff to ensure all the applicants for social welfare benefits are dealt with efficiently and as quickly as possible and get a decision within a reasonable timeframe.

To make matters worse, there are six contract workers in the Department of Social and Family Affairs in Wexford. In recent weeks they have been given notice which will expire within a couple of weeks. This is a crazy decision, obviously taken by some bureaucrat in the Department's Dublin office. Some of these staff have worked there for two years. They are experienced in how social welfare claims are dealt with. They are au fait with how to deal with applicants as quickly as possible. I ask the Minister to ensure these contract workers remain in place until such time as the embargo is lifted and we can get permanent staff in Wexford. I appreciate an embargo is in place. I appreciate also that the Minister for Social and Family Affairs will find it difficult to get agreement from the Minister for Finance to get extra staff. Surely in the present climate given that 1,000 people in Wexford Town and approximately 3,000 across County Wexford are awaiting decisions on social welfare claims, the Minister must ensure there is adequate staff to deal with claims.

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy John Moloney, who is very efficient in his own field and does a wonderful job. However, the Minister for Social and Family Affairs must explain to me and the people of Wexford the reason for inadequate staff in the social welfare local office in Wexford town and, more important, the reason she is threatening to withdraw the contract staff who do such a wonderful job in the Wexford office to supplement the permanent staff. I ask the Minister of State, Deputy John Moloney, to convey to the Minister, Deputy Mary Hanafin, my request that these contract workers remain in place and that the people of Wexford who have suffered enough through making applications for social welfare be dealt with with dignity and within a reasonable timeframe to ensure their claims come through.

Photo of John MoloneyJohn Moloney (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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I apologise to the Deputy that the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Deputy Mary Hanafin, cannot be here to respond to the Adjournment debate.

I wish to explain on her behalf that no staff of the Department of Social and Family Affairs are being made redundant, either in Wexford town or any other location. From time to time, the Department recruits temporary staff for a variety of reasons. Temporary staff are primarily recruited to cover temporary absences of permanent staff arising from maternity or adoptive leave or long-term illnesses. On occasions temporary staff are used to cover permanent vacancies when there is likely to be a significant delay in getting permanent replacement staff. There are two types of contract offered to temporary staff, that is, contracts for a defined purpose and contracts for a defined period. These types of contract are used to ensure transparency of circumstances giving rise to the need to employ temporary staff. It is not possible for the Department to offer contracts of indefinite duration as this would lead to the accrual of unintended employment rights. Additionally, it is not possible or permitted for the Department to recruit temporary staff directly into permanent positions.

In 2008, two temporary clerical staff were recruited on a defined purpose contract to serve in the social welfare local office in Wexford to cover the absence of two permanent members of staff. One of the two was recruited initially on a three-month defined period contract. That person was then retained on a defined purpose contract to cover for that absence. Subsequently, both staff absences became permanent vacancies.

Permanent staff, through redeployment from other Government Departments, have now been sourced for the two permanent vacancies and both persons on temporary contract have been given two weeks' notice to expire on 26 February 2010, following an overlap period to allow for the training of the new staff.

In order to deal effectively with the increasing workload the Department of Social and Family Affairs has tackled the issues in a number of ways. Additional staff have been assigned to the offices including investigative staff, centralised decision making sections have been set up in a number of areas and a number of process improvement initiatives have been introduced.