Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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Question 21: To ask the Minister for Social Protection the position on the integration of community welfare officers into her Department, including whether it will be fully completed by September; if the necessary accommodation is available; and her plans to inform the public of the new situation. [21328/11]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The transfer of the community welfare service to the Department of Social Protection is part of the process of streamlining the health service. By taking income support functions from the HSE and merging them with my Department, the HSE has more capacity to concentrate on its core functions of health service delivery. As a first step in the process, the staff of the community welfare service were transferred on secondment to the Department from the Health Service Executive on 1 January this year. During this time they have remained employees of the HSE and retained their current terms and conditions of employment. Plans are well advanced to have them fully transferred to the Department by the end of September. Talks are ongoing at the Labour Relations Commission to agree the terms for the final transfer. Therefore, it would be inappropriate for me to comment further on the labour relations aspects of the transfer at this time. The Department is confident that the talks, taking account of some recent recommendations from the Labour Court, will conclude in time for the transfer to be completed by the target date.

The community welfare officers coming into the Department are part of the creation of what one would call a public employment service, to be called the National Employment and Entitlements Service, whereby somebody will be able to have an integrated service for entitlements to payments and income, as well as advice on jobs and training opportunities. This will ensure people will be positively encouraged to take up options and opportunities offered in respect of training.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House.

The transfer of the community welfare service to my Department is also part of the process of developing and implementing the National Employment and Entitlements Service, a commitment given in the programme for Government. In establishing this new service, the aim of the Department is to integrate employment and benefit payments within one service and thus provide a more complete service for customers. The focus of the new service will be on activation; enabling and encouraging the individual to take up job opportunities and engage on developmental pathways to employment. Continued payment of full welfare allowances-benefits will be conditional on the individual engaging in this process.

Since January my Department and the HSE have been working closely to ensure the various HR and administrative systems such as payroll records and IT systems will be put in place for the full transfer of staff at the end of September. Significant progress has been made as follows: legislation providing for the integration of the community welfare service with the Department, including the transfer of staff and buildings, was passed in the Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2010. This provision is subject to a commencement order which will be signed as soon as the full service is ready to transfer.

A programme of communications with CWS staff is being implemented and this includes ongoing communications about the transformation agenda through newsletters, question and answer updates and information through the intranet and email. In addition, all CWS staff were issued with a welcome pack at the beginning of the year and a number of meet and greet sessions for all staff have been held at six regional locations as follows: Dublin, Cork, Sligo, Galway, Waterford and Limerick.

In relation to communications with the public and customers, a comprehensive external communications strategy is being prepared. This will provide relevant and timely information for all stakeholders and key customer groups on changes to service delivery as they are implemented.

Until the end of June CWS staff continued to provide appeals and means-testing services in relation to medical cards and other health services. The HSE has now established an alternative system for providing these services.

An interim management structure has been put in place for the community welfare service. This will be finalised as part of the full transfer.

As regards location, CWS staff will, on transfer, continue to be headquartered at their current base location or town. However, in the interests of improving customer service and reducing costs, opportunities for co-location with other departmental staff will be pursued as appropriate. This may involve staff of the Department moving to CWS locations or vice versa. Any changes that may be proposed in relation to geographical deployment will take account of the relevant provisions on staff deployment contained in the public service agreement 2010-14.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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I welcome the changes being brought about, as well as the concept of a one-stop-shop, as the Minister has described it. My questions were not about labour relations and IR issues, and I welcome the fact that there is progress. They were more about accommodation. If they are being transferred, has the accommodation been made available? Will it be available by September to ensure that they are in the same building as people who are making applications for social welfare payments? Will there be an advertising campaign on this so that the public know about the change? It is a substantial change, given the fact that many people have been dependent on the community welfare officer system. I hope people will understand what they are entitled to apply for in the future, so that if they are refused at one hatch, they can go to another hatch rather than to another building.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I appreciate the Deputy's concern. It is anticipated that there will be no change to current base locations immediately following transfer. However, as the establishment of the national employment and entitlements service progresses, there will inevitably be changes in office locations to facilitate the integration and the provision of the so-called one-stop-shop area to customers. This may mean that departmental staff could transfer to community welfare officer locations or vice versa. The Department is working on a stakeholder communication strategy to ensure that communication is made with internal and external customers in the most appropriate way at the most appropriate time.

I am aware that there is a long history of particular individuals having an ongoing relationship with a particular community welfare officer in their district or area. That is very valuable to certain people, and we will do our best to ensure that this service remains intact. However, there is also more direct payment of certain services at the local office, such as the one-parent family payment. That often entailed visits to community welfare officers while the payment on the status was being sorted out. That should now happen directly in the social welfare office.

Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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How will this improve waiting times for people? A lady in my area has been waiting 17 weeks for a decision on her habitual residency. In the meantime, she has had no income because the community welfare officer is unable to process any payments for her. Will this move help alleviate those waiting times? Will there be better communication?

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I hope it will, once the initial changeover period has been achieved. Additional guidelines on habitual residency were issued in recent weeks for people who are Irish passport holders or who are originally Irish and who have come back to Ireland. I am not sure if that is the kind of person the Deputy has in mind.

Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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It is.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Sometimes people come home perhaps to look after an elderly relative, but they still might have a house in the UK or wherever they have come from. New guidelines have come out in recent weeks, so I hope they may be of benefit to that particular individual. The Deputy might correspond with me on the issue and I will ask the Department officials to have a look at it.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I call on Deputy Cowen and Deputy Stanton briefly.

Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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Will this have any cost implications for the Department? Members of our party met EU and IMF officials a couple of weeks ago and were told that they would not allow for any savings or cutbacks that would impinge on the less well off, the old and the vulnerable. I am mindful of what was done last week, which may have had implications in that very area. They mentioned that the Minister had passed on some correspondence to the EU and the IMF. Is it possible for that to be made public?

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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Does the Minister intend to involve MABS and the citizens information centres in some way with the national employment and entitlements service?

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The IMF officials visit the country one week after the end of every quarter, so there are ongoing discussions between the IMF and my Department. I have also met the troika team and spoken to them about the importance of social welfare to domestic spending in the Irish economy. I will speak to officials in the Department about Deputy Cowen's request.

On MABS and citizens information centres, I hope that there will be a role for citizens information centres and that in some cases they will be able to be near the one-stop-shop area, so that people can get information about entitlements. Social welfare staff have access to social welfare lines, but I do not think that citizens information centre staff have such access, and we may need to examine that issue with a view to improving it. That suggestion has been made.