Phil Prendergast (Labour)

I am concerned about the Department which appears to block graduates from claiming social welfare payments. We have had the benefit of having interns in this House from DIT over several years. They provide a terrific service in helping us in our functions and duties by conducting research and doing other various vital work that allows us do our business in a clear and concise way. Perfectly good claims from them are being refused for no good reason. It is well hidden within the website, that if somebody needs to claim, they should claim on a VW form. This is an archaic way of dealing with this. It is up to the discretion of the social welfare officer. This must be addressed. There must be much more clarity on the entitlement of interns or graduates when they are seeking work and doing internships. They are involved in what would be termed voluntary work. It is, in fact, providing a service for which they do not get paid. It is a valuable service and they should be entitled to claim their benefits without having to go to this convoluted means to get it.

My second point relates to the swine 'flu vaccination programme. I was amazed to find that even though I qualified as a nurse in 1981, I cannot volunteer my services to help with the administration of the vaccine, if I wish to do so, unless I have done a course. This is in accordance with rules of the HSE. I checked this with An Bord Altranais this morning and it appears that if I wanted to volunteer my services as a registered nurse and midwife, I cannot do so even though I have been giving injections since 1978. This is just more of the kind of carry-on where the HSE imposes convoluted tactics.

It would appear that in certain areas of the country vital service providers to day-care centres and Alzheimer's units will be redeployed to help with the vaccination programme. I wonder if the HSE is once more in the process of taking away or cutting back on vital services under the guise of this pandemic and crisis, and we are not addressing it in a meaningful way. It seems sad. I am making the point, not that I was willing to give me time for free but that there are some situations where we must go beyond what seems stupid policy.